Best And Worst Run Companies In America: 24/7 Wall St.

From 24/7 Wall St.: Many American companies have done incredibly well this year. A number posted extraordinary financial results in 2011. Others have launched products that revolutionized markets.

Of course, many big public corporations also did very poorly. Several nearly destroyed their business and dragged down shareholder value with it. 24/7 Wall St. combed through the S&P 500 to find the best and worst managed companies in America for 2011.

Read: The Best Run Companies In America

Read: The Worst Run Companies In America

To make a list of semifinalists, 24/7 Wall St. considered stock price, changes in earnings per share, major shifts in market share and changes in management, among other data. Once the initial screen was complete, we reviewed product launch success, financial results, success of new management and the performance of each company within its industry. The editors then sifted through the finalist to identify those that rewarded both customers and shareholders and those that caused these two groups the most harm.

Neither the best-run companies list nor the worst-run companies list includes a large number of corporations from any single industry. This indicates our methodology identifies well- and worst-managed companies regardless of the industry. Based on our criteria, the management of Starbucks did as good a job as the management of Oracle — two of the best-run companies. Similarly, Eastman Kodak management did as poorly as the management of American Airline parent AMR — two of the worst-run companies.

This is 24/7 Wall St.'s Best and Worst Run Companies of 2011, from the worst of the worst, to the best of the best:

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Comments

[Ray Wigton]

02:59 AM on 01/06/2012

"Basic business model." I don't see that Groupon ever had a business model or that they even know what one is.

[munki]

02:29 PM on 12/13/2011

Corporate culture do connect to employee productivity...

[LeftForTheDay]

09:26 AM on 12/13/2011

Isn't RIM canadian?

[anchises868]

12:14 PM on 12/13/2011

Canadian-run, yes. But I think it's fair to say that they have a at least a fair-to-middling presence in the United States.

[rabit818]

08:26 AM on 12/13/2011

Netflix had it customers by the neck by automatically debits accounts for months or years. Then everybody woke up when they realized that they really do not need Netflix. I wish we can do the same thing with the financial institutions who robs us blind. One day...

[caryberry]

04:58 AM on 12/13/2011

Ebay is missing from the worst list.

Maybe having HP on that list covered the debacle that Ebay showed their customers with Sunday night's HP Touchscreen sale on Ebay.

Meg, Meg, Meg...and you wanted to be Queen of California.

[Wow Unbelievable]

01:13 PM on 12/13/2011

She's been CEO for less then a year... and you're holding her accountable for their problems? Hum... guess you're holding Mr Prez accountable for our Countries mess then since he's been our CEO for three years now.

[melemouth7]

04:44 AM on 12/13/2011

lol "down with censorship" this comment is awaiting approval

[melemouth7]

04:44 AM on 12/13/2011

down with censorship

[melemouth7]

04:42 AM on 12/13/2011

Stop letting the government pick winners and losers. Maybe enough regulation to keep the water and air clean but that is it, they should be all out unless they are protecting us from harm. To all you huge demos out there regulation does not have to be an all or nothing proposition though I understand it creates more big government jobs and you like that.
Once you start asking the government to protect you from yourself your fighting a losing battle on a very slippery slope and the Constitution can be burned because it will be useless. The Constitution is and was intended to be an all or nothing document with regard to living free of massive king george like population control. It is in fact the antithesis to the crowns fascism.
"Those who would give up liberty for security, in the end will have and deserve neither."

[melemouth7]

04:30 AM on 12/13/2011

The government should bail them out... unless wait, they don't have a controlling interest in this company like AIG or the megainvestment firms do they then to hell wiht them let them burn.

[2010WSCHAMPS]

06:15 AM on 12/13/2011

Shut up, Melemouth....enough already!!....seriously, "Melemouth"??? What a frickin' gross moniker!!! Write a short, succinct and to-the-point paragraph, and then get the hell out!!!!
And for God's sake, change that grotesque 'user name' and grow the F up!!!! what a complete dic#hea#!!!

[rewith85man]

03:24 AM on 12/13/2011

Greed and carelessness are the main reasons why some companies struggle and might end up going out of #business.

[Anothercastle]

01:58 AM on 12/13/2011

With all these companies on the list, I cannot help but feel sorry for all of the employees you know got laid off in order for the CEO's to make their records look like they're not as bad or simply because they screwed up so badly they can't pay their people anymore. The little guy always loses in situations like this.

[brandonmil3]

04:31 AM on 12/13/2011

Yep like when Beckman Coulter let me go after Danaher bought it....they kept one that was the bosses neice and another employee that worked at GM (where the boss was from) that takes 30 minute breaks! I made less $$ than them two BUT them two were coming to me asking "how do you do this, how do you do that?" because they didn't know how to do it!

[Scott Acosta]

01:36 AM on 12/13/2011

what about autozone

[Baconoir]

01:00 AM on 12/13/2011

AOL isnt on the list?

[WilliamFromJersey]

12:57 AM on 12/13/2011

The worst thing about this, by "worse" is that to mean less proficient at stealing from customers? I'd like to see a list of the 10 biggest thieves, Verizon for certain, maybe PSE&G isn't large enough to make such a list but they are extremely proficient at scamming customers!

[my3geez]

03:06 AM on 12/13/2011

x3 .................. well said ........... EXCELLENT POINT!!!

[FSquire767]

12:51 AM on 12/13/2011

DHL Express has to be a top runner for worst run. When the German owners took over, they fired hundreds of loyal long term employees, purchased another package carrier with questionable ability, moved out of a brand new state of the air sort facility in Florence KY, to an outdated Flying A truck stop in Wilmington OH. Lost over 9.6 billion dollars in 3.5 years, left Wilmington OH thus decimating the town's workforce and leaving thousands out of employment, back to Florence, KY and now instead of dedicated airplanes and flight crews, contracts over 12 separate airlines to move their packages. Its a quagmire brought on by the arrogance of its owners and failed to non existent business plans. Try them and see how long it takes for your package to make it to destination.

[Ray Wigton]

03:04 AM on 01/06/2012

Good comment. Thanks for not cutting them any slack, because they don't deserve any.