FORTUNE recently released their new 50 Most Admired Companies in the World list. I was fairly sure Goldman Sachs (GS) would've taken a nose dive into the abyss of unadmired companies ... well, I was very wrong -- they made the Top 10.
This begs the question: does FORTUNE's list of Most Admired Companies prove we have a weird blind spot for those who manipulate the system at our expense? Do we simply admire unabashed Gordon Gekko style greed? Or is it something more masochistic?
Interestingly, other bailed out banks made the list: JP Morgan (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC). Does this mean we admire companies that would have otherwise gone bankrupt had socialism for corporations not kicked in? Whether we are admiring these three welfare recipients for their business management or their value add to society, I can't figure how they are among the Top 50 Most Admired Companies in the World. What does that say about the other companies??
How about other Top 15 companies WalMart (WMT), Coca-Cola (KO), and McDonald's (MCD)? Do we admire them for their systematic destruction of mom and pop businesses and health? I must be missing the point of FORTUNE's list.
This year's biggest blunder on the list is Toyota (TM). Given the recent debacle, shouldn't they have been disqualified? Instead, they're ranked at lucky number 7.
For what it's worth, here's the Top 50 Most Admired Companies in the World according to FORTUNE:
1 Apple (AAPL)
2 Google (GOOG)
3 Berkshire Hathaway
4 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
5 Amazon.com (AMZN)
6 Procter & Gamble (PG)
7 Toyota Motor (TM)
8 Goldman Sachs Group (GS)
9 Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)
10 Coca-Cola (KO)
11 Microsoft (MSFT
12 Southwest Airlines
13 FedEx (FDX)
14 McDonald's (MCD)
15 IBM (IBM)
16 General Electric (GE)
17 3M (MMM)
18 J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM)
19 Walt Disney (DIS)
20 Cisco Systems (CSCO)
21 Costco Wholesale (COST)
22 BMW
22 Target (TGT)
24 Nike (NKE)
25 PepsiCo (PEP)
26 Starbucks (SBUX)
27 Singapore Airlines
28 Exxon Mobil (XOM)
29 American Express (AXP)
30 Nordstrom (JWN)
31 Intel (INTC)
32 Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
33 UPS (UPS)
34 Nestle
35 Caterpillar (CAT)
36 Honda Motor (HMC)
37 Best Buy (BBY)
38 Sony (SNE)
39 Wells Fargo (WFC)
40 eBay (EBAY)
41 Nokia (NOK)
42 Samsung Electronics
43 Deere (DE)
44 L'Oreal
45 AT&T (T)
46 Lowe's (LOW)
47 General Mills (GIS)
48 Marriott International (MAR)
49 DuPont (DD)
50 Volkswagen
What do you think of FORTUNE's new list? Let us know in the comments below.