30
35
40
45
50
executives, company employees and
analysts by the publishers. The publishers’
surveys present detailed statistical and analytical data on the companies that
they rank. For example, in order to rank America’s
most admired companies,
Fortune magazine started with the ten largest companies by
revenue in sixty-
six industries. They surveyed 10,000 executives, directors, and
securities
analysts related to those companies, who then rated the various companies in
their own industries based on certain criteria.
For the most admired companies,
the survey
respondents were asked to select the ten companies in any industry
that they admired most. Another popular example is
Fortune’s Best Companies
to Work For rating. To determine which companies make it on the list and
where they should rank, the publisher sends surveys to employees of all the
Fortune 1,000 companies, plus the 200 largest
privately held US companies.
Among all the ratings, the most trusted and well-known rankings are done
by
Fortune and
Business Week magazines.
Fortune magazine publishes many
company rankings every year, including the Fortune 500, Fortune 100 Best
Companies to Work For, Global Most Admired Companies
and Fortune Global
500. In
Fortune magazine’s Global 500, a few of the companies that regularly
show up on the list include General
Electric, Exxon Mobile, IBM, and Bank of
America. This list’s ranking is based
primarily on financial performance. By
comparison, the Fortune Global Most Admired rankings are based on executives’
surveys. Companies regularly appearing on this list year after year include
General Electric, Wal-Mart, and Microsoft. Finally turning to
Business Week
magazine’s Global 1,000 ratings, one will find such companies as General
Electric, Exxon Mobile, and Wal-Mart
crop up in the top five companies year
after year.
Reading Time
_______ minutes _______ seconds
550 words
27
analyst --- a person who studies
trends in a particular field
30
revenue --- profit; income
31
securities analyst --- a person who studies stocks and the stock market
34
respondent --- a person giving answers
38
privately held --- owned by one person
45
primarily --- mainly; for the most part
50
crop up --- to appear;
to show up
145
