Starbucks named fifth most admired company worldwide

Starbucks has been named the fifth most admired company in the world by Fortune magazine in its annual rankings. Starbucks was also ranked number one in the food and beverage industry – the 16th year in a row that Starbucks has appeared on the global list. Starbucks is the only traditional brick-and-mortar retail business to be included in the top 10 list. The rankings, which Fortune has published since 1983, are compiled by surveying thousands of executives and securities analysts about the corporate reputations of about 1500 companies — the 1000 largest US companies ranked by revenue, along with non-US companies in Fortune's Global 500 database with revenues of at least $10 billion. The selection was narrowed down according to the highest-revenue companies in each of 52 industries — a total of 680 in 29 countries. The highest-ranked companies were chosen from that group by executives who work at those companies. Executives, directors and securities analysts rated businesses in their own industry on nine criteria, including innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, financial soundness, long-term investment value, quality of products/services, social responsibility and global competitiveness. A company must score in the top half of its industry survey to be listed.