Free Custom «America’s Most Admired Companies» Essay Paper

In the recent times, companies have been forced to up their game in terms of customer service and quality of products in order to be considered admirable entities. Interviewed professionals were expected to give their views on the companies they admire the most and those perceived to give the customers value for their money. The most admired companies were sorted out based on corporate reputations and the largest companies using the revenues they collected. Therefore, companies are rated in terms of innovation, quality of management, financial soundness, and use of corporate assets, product quality, and long-term investments. Hay Group has conducted the research for the world’s most admired companies since 1997. It is a global management-consulting firm. From the research, the top five admired companies are Apple, then Google, Berkshire Hathaway, Coca-cola and Amazon.com.

Founded in 1976, Apple Inc designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. It is best known for products such as the iPod, iPhone and the iPad. It also sells and delivers digital content and applications through the iTunes store, iBookstore, App store, and Mac Apple store. Apple is the most valued company because it has redefined the music business through the revolutionary iPod, mobile telephony through the iPhone, and the media and entertainment world through the pervasive use of the iPad and Macbook (Yu, Lord, & Webb, 2010). The company’s success is traceable to the image of the founder, Steve Jobs. His influence went far beyond the iconic personality because he knew what the customer wanted. Apple has grown into one of the most admired companies because of its policies on corporate social responsibility (Peng, Rao & Wang, 2012). This includes integrity and empathy, which ensures that the company creates emotional bonding with all the stakeholders.

Google Inc is an international corporation that provides internet-based products and services, which includes cloud computing, software, and advertising technologies. It began in 1996 as a project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin who were students at Stanford University in California. Google derives most of its revenues from advertising programs. To meet and diversify the demand, it has made many innovations that continue to define the online advertising market. This helped it to make one of the biggest companies with global appeal. Google has been very helpful to its users especially with functions such as Google Search, Google Adsense, Google Books, and Google Desktop. All these services have been very efficient for individuals who can access information from the comfort of their homes or offices.

Google has remained relevant to the people by its philanthropic policies. Its not-for-profit philanthropic group, Google.org, has a mission to create awareness about climate change, global poverty, and global public health. In 2011, Google donated a total of 1 million Euros to International Mathematical Olympiad. It also launched a ‘Legalize Love’ campaign that supports gay rights worldwide. It is with this background that many professionals felt that Google was ranked as one of the most admired companies in America. Google also uses the principle of network neutrality where users are in control of the content they view and the applications they use on the internet. It gives equal access to the internet.

The Coca-Cola Company ranks third as America’s most admired companies. It is a multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic, diverse beverages. It operates locally in eight continents by working closely with customers; thereby, ensuring that the products are available in the right place at the right moment with outstanding marketplace execution.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc manages a many auxiliary companies and is located in Omaha, Nebraska. It class A-shares are the most expensive on NYSE (Servaes & Tamayo, 2012). The company insures its businesses through numerous local and international insurance entities.

Amazon Company has retail websites for different countries including Austria, USA, Sweden, and Netherlands. It is an electronic commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. It reaches a wider customer spanning the entire globe because its services are internet-based.

These companies were ranked according to their level of corporate social responsibility. It is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Social responsibility includes social accounting, auditing, and reporting. Social accounting describes the communication of social and environmental effects of the economic actions of a company (García-de-Madariaga & Rodríguez-de-Rivera-Cremades, 2010). It therefore, emphasizes the notion of corporate accountability.

Quality management ensures the consistence of an organization’s products. It has four main components: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, and quality improvement. The components ensure that the companies focus on customers’ current and future needs in addition to the unity and direction of leadership (Taffler & Brown, 2011). Their financial soundness was also determined to support the analysis and assessment of strengths and vulnerabilities of their financial systems.

All these determinants have come as a great lesson to all other companies that want to stay at the top in terms of sales, social responsibility, quality management, and financial security. Companies should take the time to understand the needs of their customers. Employees must work in better environment to be of maximum productivity. They should also give back to the community that ensured its success by donating money to charity works and educating the public on pertinent issues such as abortion and human rights. Consequently, companies should borrow a leaf from these most admired companies.