(FORTUNE Magazine) – To select the world's most admired companies, FORTUNE went straight to those in the know: senior executives and outside directors in each industry, plus financial analysts who earn their living comparing competitors in each field. As with FORTUNE's list of America's most admired corporations, we asked these industry insiders to rate each company on eight criteria: overall management quality, products or service quality, innovativeness, value as a long-term investment, financial strength, responsibility to the community and environment, and wise use of corporate assets. To reflect the list's international scope, we have added a ninth category, asking survey respondents to rate how effective each company is in doing business globally. A company's overall ranking is the average of the scores of all nine attributes. We have also added an all-star list, just like the one that accompanies our ranking of America's most admired companies (March 2; see the fortune.com archive). We asked those surveyed to select the five companies they most admire. The all-star list (see table in accompanying story) is composed of the 25 companies that won the most votes.

HOW WE SELECTED THE INDUSTRIES: Working with the Hay Group, a worldwide management consulting firm with headquarters in Philadelphia, FORTUNE divided its list of large global companies into 45 industries. We then winnowed the group down to 21 industries, eliminating those that were dominated by just one country or had fewer than four companies.

Aerospace 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 3 AlliedSignal 7.65 2 1 Boeing 7.13 3 4 United Technologies 7.01 4 5 Textron 6.99 5 2 Lockheed Martin 6.84 6 7 British Aerospace 6.51 7 * General Dynamics 6.32 8 * Northrop Grumman 6.25 9 * Rolls-Royce 6.00 10 * Thomson-CSF 5.51 11 8 Aerospatiale 5.11 Airlines 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 * KLM 5.95 2 4 AMR (American) 5.86 3 3 Southwest Airlines 5.73 4 6 Lufthansa Group 5.62 5 * Singapore Airlines 5.62 6 1 British Airways 5.61 7 5 UAL 5.31 8 2 NWA/Continental [1] 5.17 9 7 Delta Air Lines 4.89 10 * Swire Pacific (Cathay) 4.58 11 * US Airways Group 4.19 12 * Scandinavian Airlines 4.16 13 9 Japan Airlines 3.99 14 * SAirGroup (Swissair) 3.87 15 8 All Nippon Airways 3.30 16 * Air France Group 3.09

Beverages [2] 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 Coca-Cola 8.11 2 * Coca-Cola Enterprises 6.99 3 3 Anheuser-Busch 6.96 4 8 PepsiCo 6.66 5 4 Diageo [3] 6.53 6 * Heineken 6.20 7 * Bass 6.12 8 * Asahi Breweries 5.95 9 5 Seagram 5.92 10 * Cadbury Schweppes 5.81 11 6 Kirin Brewery 5.75 12 * Allied Domecq 4.97 Chemicals 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 Du Pont 8.12 2 2 Dow Chemical 7.05 3 * PPG Industries 7.01 4 3 Bayer 7.01 5 5 BASF 6.75 6 7 Imperial Chemical Inds. 6.63 7 4 Hoechst 6.53 8 8 Norsk Hydro 5.81 9 * Union Carbide 5.76 10 10 Akzo Nobel 5.75 11 9 Rhone-Poulenc 5.73 12 6 Mitsubishi Chemical 5.56 13 * Occidental Petroleum 5.46 14 * CEA-Industrie 5.16 15 * Asahi Chemical Industry 5.02

Commercial Banks 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 J.P. Morgan 7.36 2 2 Citicorp 7.27 3 * Norwest 6.72 4 * Chase Manhattan 6.70 5 * HSBC Holdings 6.61 6 * ABN Amro Holding 6.56 7 * Credit Suisse 6.17 8 3 Deutsche Bank 6.09 9 * Societe Generale 5.62 10 4 Credit Agricole 5.10 11 * Banque Nationale de Paris 5.02 12 * Sumitomo Bank 4.86 13 6 Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi 4.80 14 7 Sanwa Bank 4.76 15 5 Industrial Bank of Japan 4.71 16 9 Fuji Bank 3.99 17 10 Credit Lyonnais 3.82

Computers [4] 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 2[5] Intel 8.24 2 1 Microsoft 8.22 3 2 Hewlett-Packard 7.95 4 * EMC 7.15 5 * Dell Computer 7.07 6 5 Oracle 6.82 7 4 Intl. Business Machines 6.75 8 * Texas Instruments 6.53 9 6 Sun Microsystems 6.43 10 3 Compaq Computer 6.33 11 * Seagate Technology 5.83 12 * Gateway 2000 5.82 13 9 Fujitsu 4.83 14 11 Digital Equipment 4.40 15 12 Apple Computer 4.09 16 * Groupe Bull 3.57

Electronics, Electrical Equip. 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 General Electric 8.37 2 3 Sony 7.27 3 * ABB Asea Brown Boveri 7.10 4 7[6] L.M. Ericsson 7.08 5 * Motorola 6.43 6 8 Siemens 6.42 7 6 Matsushita Electric Indl. 6.38 8 10 Royal Philips Electronics[7]6.25 9 5 NEC 6.12 10 4 Toshiba 6.00 11 7 Hitachi 5.97 12 * Alcatel 5.81 13 * BCE 5.79 14 9 Mitsubishi Electric 5.44 15 * Samsung Electronics 4.85

Entertainment[**] 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 * Walt Disney 7.79 2 * Time Warner 7.30 3 * Viacom 6.61 4 * News Corp. 6.03 5 * CBS 5.61 6 * Havas 5.03 Food 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 3 Nestle 7.31 2 * Bestfoods 7.08 3 2 Sara Lee 7.07 4 6 Unilever 7.02 5 5 ConAgra 6.96 6 * Kellogg 6.78 7 4 Campbell Soup 6.77 8 * H.J. Heinz 6.48 9 7 Groupe Danone 6.16 10 * Farmland Industries 5.92 11 8 IBP 5.68 12 9 RJR Nabisco Holdings 5.68 13 11 Snow Brand Milk Products 5.35 14 12 Archer Daniels Midland 5.19 Food Services[2] 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 2 McDonald's 7.05 2 * Darden Restaurants 5.60 3 * Tricon Global Restaurants 5.57 4 * Sodexho Alliance 5.50 5 * Granada Group 5.34 6 * Compass Group 5.02

Imaging and Office Equipment [4] 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1[8] 3M 8.39 2 7[9] Xerox 7.37 3 * Honeywell 7.32 4 8[9] Canon 6.79 5 2[8] Baxter International 6.66 6 4[8] Fuji Photo Film 6.49 7 3[8] Eastman Kodak 6.02 8 * Nikon 6.02 9 10[9] Ricoh 5.81 10 * Konica 5.43

Industrial and Farm Equipment 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 Caterpillar 7.95 2 2 Deere 7.45 3 * Ingersoll-Rand 6.82 4 * Cummins Engine 6.48 5 * Case 6.43 6 * Black & Decker 6.36 7 * Dresser Industries 6.03 8 5 Mannesmann 6.00 9 4 Kubota 5.95 10 * American Standard 5.95 11 6 Komatu 5.94 12 3 Mitsubishi Heavy Inds. 5.71 13 8[10] Thyssen 5.68 14 8 BTR 5.37 15 7 Ishikawajima-Harima 5.12

Mail, Package, Freight Delivery 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 2 United Parcel Service 7.12 2 1 FDX[11] 6.63 3 3 Nippon Express 4.67 4 5 Deutsche Post 4.57 5 4 British Post Office 4.40 6 6 U.S. Postal Service 3.99 7 7 Japan Postal Service 3.79 8 8 La Poste 3.25 9 * Pittston 3.06 Metals, Metal Products 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 * Fortune Brands 5.75 2 2 Alcoa 5.34 3 1 Nucor 4.74 4 * British Steel 4.25 5 5 Nippon Steel 4.15 6 6 Kobe Steel 4.06 7 4 Usinor 3.95 8 9 NKK 3.95 9 * Kawasaki Steel 3.92 10 3 Broken Hill Proprietary 3.91 11 * Pohang Iron & Steel 3.86 12 7 Sumitomo Metal Inds. 3.84 13 10 Pechiney 3.84 14 * Mitsubishi Materials 3.82 15 * Sumitomo Electric Inds. 3.62 16 11 Fried. Krupp 3.44 17 * Metallgesellschaft 3.37

Motor Vehicles 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 Toyota Motor 7.69 2 2 Daimler-Benz 7.56 3 * BMW 7.05 4 3 Honda Motor 6.98 5 5 Ford Motor 6.82 6 4 General Motors 6.81 7 6 Volkswagen 6.59 8 7 Chrysler 6.20 9 * Volvo 6.09 10 10 Fiat 5.25 11 8 Nissan Motor 4.89 12 * Mitsubishi Motors 4.78 13 9 Renault 4.75 14 * Peugeot 4.71 15 11[5] Daewoo 3.49

Petroleum Refining 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 Royal Dutch/Shell Group 7.81 2 2 Mobil 7.64 3 3 Exxon 7.64 4 4 British Petroleum 7.49 5 6 Chevron 7.11 6 5 Amoco 6.50 7 7 Texaco 6.50 8 8 Total 6.10 9 * USX 5.85 10 9 ENI 5.80 11 10 Elf Aquitaine 5.64 12 * PDVSA 5.41 13 * Nippon Oil 4.87 14 * SK 4.46 15 * Ssangyong 3.98

Pharmaceuticals 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 Pfizer 8.58 2 7 Bristol-Myers Squibb 7.79 3 3 Merck 7.37 4 2 Johnson & Johnson 7.25 5 * Warner-Lambert 6.92 6 * Eli Lilly 6.68 7 * Schering-Plough 6.64 8 9 Abbott Laboratories 6.30 9 5 Glaxo Wellcome 6.28 10 8 Novartis 6.17 11 10 American Home Products 6.09 12 6 Roche Holding 6.08 13 4 SmithKline Beecham 5.82 14 * Pharmacia & Upjohn 4.92 15 * Sankyo 4.88

Publishing [**] 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 * Tribune 8.04 2 * Gannett 7.45 3 * Times Mirror 6.82 4 * Bertelsmann 6.57 5 * McGraw-Hill 5.92 6 * R.R. Donnelley & Sons 5.78 7 * Reuters 5.67 8 * Reed Elsevier 5.30 9 * United News & Media 4.54 10 * Lagardere Groupe 3.36

Securities, Diversified Financials 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 Berkshire Hathaway 7.98 2 5 Merrill Lynch 7.27 3 4 American Express 7.10 4 7 Morgan Stanley Dean Witter 6.73 5 8 Lehman Brothers Hldgs. 5.51 6 * Bear Stearns 5.40 7 * Paine Webber Group 4.76 8 * Nomura Securities 4.14 9 * Nikko Securities 3.89 10 * Daiwa Securities 3.84

Soaps, Cosmetics 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 Procter & Gamble 8.54 2 2 Gillette 8.26 3 3 L'Oreal 7.59 4 * Colgate-Palmolive 7.41 5 5 Estee Lauder 7.07 6 4 Henkel 6.75 7 * Avon Products 6.53 8 * Shiseido 6.34 9 * LVMH 6.24 10 * Kao 6.05 11 * Reckitt & Colman 5.96 12 * Kanebo 5.82 Telecommunications 1998 1997 Company SCORE 1 1 SBC Communications 7.57 2 3 BellSouth 5.98 3 * Sprint 5.90 4 2 Nippon Tel. & Tel. 5.61 5 4 BT 5.54 6 * Bell Atlantic 5.48 7 * Ameritech 5.40 8 10 France Telecom 5.28 9 8 Deutsche Telekom 5.25 10 * Telefonica de Espana 5.07 11 6 AT&T 5.04 12 9 GTE 4.96 13 5 MCI Communications[12] 4.86 14 11 IRI 4.67 15 * Telebras 4.67

FOOTNOTES *Not ranked last year. [**]New category. [1]Pending merger announced at time of survey. [2]One of two new categories replacing beverages/food services. [3]Name changed from Grand Metropolitan, Dec. 17, 1997. [4]One of two new categories replacing computers, office equipment/data services. [5]Rank last year in electronics, electrical equipment. [6]Rank last year in telecommunications. [7]Name changed from Philips Electronics, March 16, 1998. [8]Rank last year in scientific, photo, control equipment. [9]Rank last year in computers, office equipment. [10]Rank last year in metals, metal products. [11]Name changed from Federal Express, Jan. 27, 1998. [12]Acquired by WorldCom, now called MCI WorldCom, Sept. 14, 1998.