America's Most Admired Companies, according to Fortune Magazine30 pts

Due: Monday: October 12; Preferred to be word-processed, you can email it to me:

To find detailed info on these companies, Go to:

Eight key attributes that make a Company Admirable
Innovation – how is the company using technology
People management – how many employees do they have, in how many countries, do they provide tuition reimbursement
Use of corporate assets – list each of their most recentassets and asset amounts for the year 2008 from their Balance Sheet (
Social responsibility - list any charities/ foundations that the company is a part of; community service
Quality of management – list the company’s “Chiefs” and their salaries – found on finance.yahoo.com, click on the Profile link and then find the table for Key Executives
Financial soundness – see below
Long-term investment – what are they doing to grow in the future…find one News headline that describes their growth or a find a recent press release from their website; also find how much Cash they spent in the past 3 years on Total Investing Activities, found on the Cash Flow Statement found on
Quality of products/services – describe in detail all of the products/services that this company provides

Part 1: Re-rank the Eight key attributes of reputationaccording to what you think is most important when deciding to work at a company or invest your money by purchasing stock in a company.

Part2: Choose onecompany from the list of the top 20 America’s Most Admired, who you would invest your money into. It should be a company you would want to work for

  • Explain how this company meets each of the “Eight key attributes of reputation” criteria
  • SPECIFICALLY explain how this company meets each of the 8 listed criteria by answering the questions above
  • you should use their company’s website and
  • How to answering the question of Financial Soundness:
  • http:://finance.yahoo.com
  • The financial statements:
  • Balance Sheet – what has the company’s total Stockholder’s Equity been for the past 3 years (list the $$$)
  • Income Statement - what has the company’s total Net Income been for the past 3 years (list the $$$)
  • Cash Flow Statement what has the company’s total Change In Cash and Cash Equivalents been for the past 3 years (list the $$$)

1 / Apple
2 / Berkshire Hathaway
3 / General Electric
4 / Google
5 / Toyota Motor
6 / Starbucks
7 / FedEx
8 / Procter & Gamble
9 / Johnson & Johnson
10 / Goldman Sachs Group
11 / Target
12 / Southwest Airlines
13 / American Express
14* / BMW
14* / Costco Wholesale
16 / Microsoft
17 / United Parcel Service
18 / Cisco Systems
19 / 3M
20 / Nordstrom