"Most Admired Companies" Mostly Underperformed Market

At the top of the list is Apple (AAPL) which deserves some recognition for rebuilding itself with what many people believe is the best line of personal computers, multimedia players, and cellular handsets in the world. Unfortunately, Apple's shares are down more than 50% in the last year. Many analysts think sales of its premium-priced products will falter in a recession.

The No.2 firm is Berkshire Hathaway (BRK), Warren Buffet's company. By most accounts, Buffet has had one of his worst years as a portfolio manager. Berkshire shares are only off by about the same amount as the DJ IA over the last twelve months, but that does not comfort Buffet's multitude of admirers.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[iPolitics]

Not as high as his innovation

[Nemo99]

For heavens sake, AAPl isn't even a advertised. I know all you bi-coastal types revere the Fruit as though its charity...but its not. Its greedy corporation that has the best salesman who makes you feel special and unique buying shiny plastic products while giving you the audacity to feel superior.

[yesyesyes]

Thanks for showing us bi-coastal types the lite.

[davidharkleroad]

Here's a description of the methodology of the study, which polls 15,000 senior executives and industry analysts on 9 business and leadership attributes: http://www.haygroup.com/ww/Best_Companies/Index.aspx?ID=1582

[davidharkleroad]

A little more: when my company, Hay Group, analyzed performance over a multi-year period, within the Most Admired Companies, the top 10 have outperformed industry peers and the markets, giving average shareholder returns of 19.6 per cent, nearly three times the Standard and Poor"s average of 7.1 per cent, for the period 2004"2007 (when the most recent analysis was done).

Seven companies have appeared in the Top 25 every year: GE, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Toyota Motor, Johnson & Johnson and Citigroup. These companies have a number of characteristics in common:

Success through people.

Strong organizational culture.

Profound employee engagement.

Strategy that gets executed.

Managed innovation.

Balance of global and local.

Long-term focus.

You can read more here (and download the complete report, In a league of their own): http://www.haygroup.com/ww/Best_Companies/Index.aspx?id=155

[dandypuddin]

Citigroup long term focus? Yeah, right.

[quiviran]

Requires registration to download. Isn't there an internet term for this type of post?

[hellboundtrain]

Peolple go overboard on this. Maybe the better word, instead of admire, is adoration, or adulation even.

But we have consistently seen that those on the top have been brought to the bottom because it is just the other side of the same circle/cycle.

or

Castles made of sand fall to the sea eventually

[GerryS]

I have an idea- lets make a market where we trade money on how the rich and famous are admired or not.
__________________________________________________________

y'all know this story and the above foolishness are some of the the EXACT reasons we are in this economic mess. you follow people and money blindly, you get lost and robbed.

[bluguy8]

Apple has the best products--the best design but people want them to fail--its not going to happen.. thats why the stock is down , no other reason

[beccasmecka]

bluguy: Apple has the best design and the best marketing. That I can agree with.
The stock is down for two reasons - sales and the continued talk of Steve Jobs' health issues. They need to further separate the importance of Steve to the company...which they have begun to do in the last few months.

[GerryS]

apple's sun does not rise and set in SJ's a-s-s

[macbabe]

Apple continues to have great earnings quarter after quarter and is the hottest stock day traded and why rumors make it go up and down unlike other stocks...it's a GREAT company to invest in, and Apple will rise again.

Happy New Year Uncle Steve!!

[jsgaetano]

If you admire a company for good reasons, then so long as your reasons are valid, this simply becomes a buying opportunity.

The problem is one of perspective. Investment is a long-term game, not a short term one. But sadly, most people are not taught to take a long-term view. Executives look to the next quarter, and investors do the same.

[weeklyworldnews]

Apple has changed MANY lives... come on. The iphone is a revelation (dont have one). But still.. it can be an admirable company - way better than most.

let's hope the scientists don't screw them with their new release.. haha

http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/scientist-creates-iphone-death-ray-app/

[bujeeboo]

Not caring about a company's image is more short-term thinking that got us where we are today.

It used to be that company executives looked beyond a quarter's dividends to share-holders and looked at surviving in the long term, through good times and bad. The two are mutually exclusive. It's hard to be innovative when share holders who know nothing about the widget business they are invested in want instant gratification.

[toypiano]

Well said.

[DRaymond]

It depends on how well they sell being admirable. Corporations have no conscience as such. They behave admirably because they want people to buy what they are selling. That isn't bad in itself, but people sometimes anthromorphize when they shouldn't

[Erdgeist]

Underperformance is heavily correlated with the bursting of the housing and credit bubble not in this case with either Jobs or Buffet. BTW, I was just in the Apple store in Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta. It was packed, whereas all the other other stores were virtually empty. Let me add that many of Apple's critics are incorrigible fantasizers.

[nomoredead]

" Bet on the jockey, not the horse. "

[leeman79]

I don't admire companies, I admire individuals.

[swift goat pet for truth]

1- Takes time to get public recognition.

2- Lots of companies did worse.