Good morning.
Fortune’s annual World’s Most Admired Companies list can sometimes seem like an exercise in the obvious. Apple is still on top of our annual ranking of corporate reputation this year, capping a string of 16 years. Amazon, Microsoft, and Berkshire Hathaway are close behind. Anyone surprised?
But occasionally, a reputational shift demands notice. That happened last year to Pfizer, which came from nowhere to capture the fourth spot on the all-star list, based on its pandemic performance. This year it’s hanging in at number 8. Another mover this year is Occidental Petroleum, which earned the top spot on the mining and crude oil production industry list. That’s a feather in the cap of CEO Vicki Hollub, who may have gotten a boost from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment, but also has led the industry in focusing and investing in efforts to counteract carbon and methane emissions. On the downside, Netflix slid from number 9 to number 29 on our all-star list. And when asked to name the world’s most overrated CEO, survey respondents mentioned Elon Musk most often.
Running a most admired company appears to be correlated with the longevity of CEOs. Warren Buffett (#4) has 53 years on the job. Jamie Dimon (#5) has 17 at JPMorgan Chase. Overall, the CEOs of our 500 all-star companies had an average of 7.8 years as of Jan. 1—25% more than the average Fortune 500 CEO.
A special shout out to the five companies that have been on the list every year since it started 25 years ago: Berkshire Hathaway, Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and Toyota. That kind of consistent reputation isn’t easy to maintain.
You can find the full list here, and a note on our methodology here. Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
