| |
LEGO® is No.1 of 600 companies for 2007
May 23, 2007 Fobes.com By Tara Weiss
The world’s most reputable companies:
These business have products consumers want — and their trust
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18805466/
With all the bad news recently about corporate scandals you might be forgiven
for wondering which companies actually have good reputations.
For the eighth year, Reputation Institute, a New York City-based consultancy and
research firm, conducted a study to find the answer. This year’s winner is
LEGO. Yes, LEGO, the 70-year-old Danish toy manufacturer, scored No. 1 of 600
companies worldwide.
Sure, you think LEGO and fond childhood memories of those clickable plastic
blocks come to mind. But what about other feel-good companies like the Walt
Disney Co. and Johnson and Johnson? Those companies made the list too — No. 38
and No. 35, respectively. But what did LEGO do to beat the competition?
Its high standing likely has to do with a recent turnaround, says Charles
Fombrun, executive director of Reputation Institute. LEGO got off track a few
years ago, he says, venturing into online gaming and movies. It didn’t manage
those areas well and, as a result, suffered financially. “They ventured farther
afield, and their brand got diluted,” says Fombrun. That prompted leadership
changes and negative press reports.
In recent years though, “they engineered a turnaround by pruning their lines of
business,” says Fombrun. “Now what we’re seeing is the result of the turnaround.
There’s more stability.”
Other companies that moved up the list are the Swedish furniture company IKEA,
which moved from fourth place last year to second. More impressive though was
the Spanish grocery chain Mercadona — it moved from 29th place to fourth.
The company attributes the move to the ongoing dialog they have with customers.
Mercadona prides itself on listening to customers and implementing their ideas
and suggestions.
Another company that increased its reputation standing is Vestas Wind Systems,
the Danish manufacturer of wind turbines. Their move is also the result of a
turnaround, says Peter Wenzel Kruse, vice president of Vestas communications. In
2004 the company merged with India’s NEG Micon. “The merger didn’t work out well
the first year,” says Kruse.
Things changed with a new CEO and senior leadership team. Last year was the
first time the company turned a profit. Kruse says Vestas also benefited from a
global media strategy — instead of focusing communication efforts on Danish
media, it’s reaching out to the international media. The company was recently
featured in Newsweek, CNN and Bloomberg Television.
Reputation Institute surveyed more than 60,000 people online in 29 countries —
participants could only vote on companies based in the country where they live.
Of the 600 companies, the mean score is 60 points. LEGO received an 85.01 —
which the Institute considers excellent. Behind LEGO is the Italian pasta, sauce
and specialty food company Barilla, which came in third place this year with a
score of 84.05. Last year it was in first place.
To determine a company’s reputation, the Institute surveyed consumers on seven
factors that contribute to a firm’s reputation: products and services,
innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance. For
the first time, voters counted citizenship as having the strongest effect on
reputation. (Fombrun partly attributes that to the fact that the Institute used
to include a single category with products/services and innovation. They broke
products/services and innovation into two different categories this year.)
“For any company, success is about trust and relationships,” says Mike Lawrence,
executive vice president of Cone LLC, a strategy and communications agency that
specializes in building brand trust. “The biggest reason is technology, which
has empowered every consumer to be extremely powerful. Someone who isn’t happy
with a company can go online and inundate a CEO’s e-mail inbox and have people
20,000 miles away ready to boycott.”
Another determinant of citizenship is sustainability. That’s something Western
European companies are much farther ahead on than U.S.-based companies. The
study reports Vestas has the highest citizenship score, followed by the Danish
electronic component company Danfoss, IKEA, Barilla and Mercadona.
“Making turbines in the eyes of the public by definition makes you a good
citizen,” says Kruse. “There’s no doubt that we’re being judged on our product.”
One company that didn’t fare so well in the survey, though, was oil company
Halliburton. They came in second-to-last, behind the Australian Wheat Board.
Complete Rankings list
http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/21/reputation-institute-survey-lead-citizen-cx_sm_0521companies_table.html?partner=msnbc
-end of report-
|
|
Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: LEGO® Group The world’s most reputable company of 2007
|
| (...) Snip (...) To ALL, (For greatest impact, read this as if Foghorn Leghorn was reading it out loud to you.) I say, I say, I am flabbergasted, down right outraged that Microsoft is not in the top 200. Why its, its an outrage that this fine (...) (18 years ago, 24-May-07, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general, FTX)
|
12 Messages in This Thread:
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
