We offer you an interesting read, inspired by TIME magazine’s annual ranking, we show you the ranking of the top 10 companies in the world, according to several key indicators.
Key indicators include sustainability, employee satisfaction and more.
2023 was a tough year for many companies, with tens of thousands of workers laid off since January.
Yet there are some that have managed to cope.
Here’s a table of the top 10:
Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet (the company that owns Google) and Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) are the top four companies in a new statistical ranking of 750 of the world’s best companies compiled by Statista and TIME, which is based on a formula of revenue growth, employee satisfaction surveys and rigorous environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG or sustainability) data.
Tech companies are among the other top performers, along with IT and consulting firm Accenture and financial services company American Express, in part because their carbon emissions are much lower than other types of human-footprint companies, such as airlines, hotels or large manufacturers.
But they also ranked well because their employees are largely satisfied – the top four received the highest scores in the employee rankings – and because they have made such big financial gains over the past three years while committing to social management principles such as reducing emissions and appointing more women to boards.
For example, Microsoft, the top company in the global ranking, earned $72 billion in its last financial year, up 63% from 2020, while reducing overall emissions by 0.5%. In its latest annual report, it also said that both racial and ethnic minority employees and women in the US earned more on average than their male counterparts. “The way I think about our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more,” CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview with TIME in May 2023.
Accenture, based in Dublin, has the highest ESG rating of any company on the list. The company is committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2025 and has significantly reduced its emissions since 2019. Its CEO, Julie Sweet, is a woman, as are half of its board members. “It’s not a walk in the park,” she told TIME in 2020 about progress in gender diversity. Accenture’s workforce is currently 47% female, the company said in its latest annual report, and it intends to achieve gender parity by 2025.
The rankings show exactly who dominates the global economic order, with fast-growing technology and business services companies displacing the manufacturers and consumer goods companies that once drove the global economy.
The world’s best companies in 2023 can create things as their ancestors did, while their employees, shareholders and the planet win too. -Alana Semuels