The World's Most Reputable Companies In 2017

For the second year in a row, Rolex has topped the list of the most reputable companies on the planet. The Swiss watchmaker’s retention of the top position comes on the back of strong scores in various categories but most remarkably in the perception of its performance, and products and services.

The ranking, which highlights the top 100 most reputable companies based on feedback collected from some 170,000 respondents familiar with them, is compiled annually by The Reputation Institute (RI), a reputation management consulting firm based in Boston that launched in 1997. Since its founding the firm has offered corporate clients strategies and insights into how they might gauge and improve their reputation among customers in various markets.

RI records companies’ scores using its proprietary RepTrak Pulse measurement system, tracking company perception in seven categories: products & services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance. This latest ranking is based on surveys collected in Q1. See above for a slideshow of the top 15 and scroll to the end of this post for the full list of 100.

Why does perception matter to global companies? According to RI, reputation drives business. The higher the score a firm receives, the more likely its products are to be purchased or recommended. Respondents also said they would be more likely to say positive things about or even work for a given firm.

Rolex’s result this year marks the first time a top-ranked company has recorded an overall excellent score, or a score of over 80 points (Rolex scored 80.38). Respondents perceive the Geneva-based firm as having high-quality products that it stands behind that meet customers’ needs. Respondents also see the company as being well-organized and profitable.

Other top performers in this year’s ranking include Lego, which jumped up to second place from the sixth position last year. Aside from being a well-known, internationally operating toy company with one foot in play and another in education, the firm has in recent years ventured out to produce films based on its wares. That sojourn into entertainment has driven the perception that it is a cutting edge digital player. It performed strongest in the products and services category this year, ending with an overall RepTrak Pulse score of 79.46.

In the third spot we find The Walt Disney Company, down one place from last year. The entertainment firm made the biggest impression on respondents’ perceptions in the performance category, showing that people believe the company to be profitable. It received an overall score of 79.19.

Some of the biggest movers on this year’s list include ABInBev, the world’s largest beer company with brands like Budweiser, Corona and Becks. The company jumped 4.5 points and landed at 72nd place. Bosch climbed 4.4 points and broke into the top-10, nestled in sixth place, right behind Google.

The two farthest-fallers, point-wise, are Samsung and Daimler. Samsung’s dip, which landed it in 70th place, is due in no small measure to the fallout from its Galaxy Note 7 crisis—a mobile phone with a tendency to explode. It could have been worse for Samsung had it not accrued so much goodwill among consumers in prior years.

Daimler’s star dimmed thanks to an investigation into its emissions certification process.  In the auto industry in general, several non-luxury brands saw an increase in scores. Toyota, Honda, Ford, Renault, GM and even VW – climbing back from its emissions scandal – showed improvements over last year. Luxury brands Daimler and BMW group fell a few points. BMW’s brand carries with it the perception of great products and innovation. But that’s not everything, says Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, RI’s managing director in North America. “It’s a brand that has relied on innovation and performance, but is fast coming to the realization that focusing on corporate social responsibility is equally if not more important.”

But performance, products, proper corporate governance and citizenship are only part of the battle to changing the public’s perception. The other part of the equation is communicating those high-points. RI found that companies at the top of the list, in general, tend to understand this. Rolex, Lego and Disney all place emphasis on expressing what they stand for and touting, in one way or another, their virtues. All prioritize communication, all provide information on their activities and all seem to welcome discussions about what they’re up to.

And why shouldn’t they? How they are perceived depends on it. And business, in large measure, depends on perception.

Rank     Company             RepTrak Pulse Score

1	Rolex	80.38
2	LEGO Group	79.46
3	The Walt Disney Company	79.19
4	Canon	78.28
5	Google	78.22
6	Bosch	78.13
7	Sony	77.74
8	Intel	77.74
9	Rolls-Royce Aerospace	77.66
10	Adidas	77.27
11	Microsoft	77.12
12	BMW Group	76.93
13	Michelin	76.75
14	Levi Strauss & Co.	76.70
15	Nike, Inc.	75.74
16	Nintendo	75.72
17	Ferrero	75.45
18	Amazon.com	75.33
19	IBM	75.29
20	Apple	74.94
21	Philips Electronics	74.94
22	3M	74.82
23	Barilla	74.74
24	Cisco Systems	74.72
25	Colgate-Palmolive	74.64

26	Visa	74.54
27	Daimler	74.52
28	Giorgio Armani	74.44
29	Goodyear	74.40
30	Bridgestone	74.12
31	Mastercard	74.12
32	Pirelli	74.11
33	Caterpillar	74.06
34	Toyota	73.98
35	Panasonic	73.88
36	HP Inc.	73.73
37	The Estée Lauder Companies	73.71
38	Danone	73.54
39	BBC	73.50
40	Netflix	73.35
41	Whirlpool	73.30
42	Emirates	73.29
43	Hugo Boss	73.27
44	Johnson & Johnson	73.27
45	Ralph Lauren Corporation	73.20
46	L'Oréal	73.18
47	Siemens	73.14
48	Honda Motor	73.13
49	Boeing	73.02
50	Hilton Worldwide	73.00

51	Airbus	72.96
52	The Kraft Heinz Company	72.90
53	DHL	72.85
54	Nestlé	72.63
55	FedEx	72.59
56	British Airways	72.59
57	Kellogg's	72.48
58	IKEA Group	72.46
59	Heineken	72.41
60	Fujifilm	72.32
61	Procter & Gamble	72.30
62	Hershey Company	72.28
63	LG Corporation	72.05
64	Oracle	71.90
65	SAP	71.86
66	Campbell Soup Company	71.86
67	Xerox	71.67
68	Dell	71.60
69	Ford	71.42
70	Samsung Electronics	70.98
71	General Electric	70.98
72	Anheuser-Busch InBev	70.90
73	Electrolux	70.87
74	Unilever	70.84
75	Toshiba	70.74

76	Nokia	70.71
77	Air France-KLM	70.63
78	Virgin Group	70.62
79	UPS	70.61
80	Nissan Motor	69.95
81	Hitachi	69.95
82	The Coca-Cola Company	69.53
83	eBay	69.30
84	Bacardi	69.22
85	PSA Peugeot-Citroën	69.15
86	LinkedIn	68.82
87	Groupe Renault	68.71
88	Sharp	68.65
89	American Express	68.36
90	Fujitsu	68.14
91	Ericsson	67.99
92	Zara	67.76
93	PepsiCo	67.71
94	ING	67.46
95	Starbucks Coffee Company	67.36
96	General Motors	67.28
97	Delta Air Lines	67.11
98	FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles)	66.58
99	Hyundai	66.12
100	Volkswagen	64.73

by Forbes