(FORTUNE Magazine) – To compile this list of the world's most admired companies, FORTUNE consulted the experts: the business executives who run companies and the analysts who study them. As with FORTUNE's list of America's most admired corporations (Feb. 21 issue; available in the www.fortune.com archive), which is limited to companies based in the U.S., our global companies were rated according to eight criteria: quality of management; quality of products and services; innovativeness; long-term investment value; financial soundness; ability to attract, develop, and retain talent; community responsibility; and use of corporate assets. To reflect the global list's international scope, we have added a ninth category, global business acumen. A company's overall ranking is the average of the scores of all nine attributes. Companies are ranked within their industry, and the top 25--the All-Stars--are culled from across all industry groups.

HOW IT WORKS

Working with the Hay Group, we divided the world's largest companies into industries and then cut categories dominated by one country or with fewer than four companies. This year we dropped one category (food services) and added four: energy transmission and providers; engineering and construction; food and drug stores; and network communications and Internet technologies.

Aerospace

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 2 Honeywell International[1] 7.07 2 3 Bombardier 6.85 3 1 United Technologies 6.68 4 7 Boeing 6.54 5 4 Textron 6.42 6 5 General Dynamics 6.12 7 6 Bae Systems[2] 6.10 8 11 Northrop Grumman 6.05 9 8 Rolls-Royce 5.93 10 12 Thomson-Csf 5.69 11 15 Snecma 5.62 12 13 Aerospatiale Matra[3] 5.48 13 9 Lockheed Martin 5.47 14 -- Rheinmetall 5.36 15 -- Raytheon 5.22

Airlines

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 -- Singapore Airlines 7.26 2 1 Southwest Airlines 6.98 3 2 Continental 6.76 4 7 Lufthansa Group 6.56 5 6 UAL 6.37 6 4 AMR (American) 6.26 7 3 British Airways 6.09 8 9 Delta Air Lines 6.07 9 8 KLM 5.82 10 12 Northwest Airlines 5.51 11 14 Japan Airlines 5.05 12 5 SairGroup (Swissair) 4.93 13 15 All Nippon Airways 4.84 14 13 Air France Group 4.70 15 11 US Airways Group 4.62

Beverages

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 Coca-Cola 7.53 2 8 Coca-Cola Enterprises 6.73 3 4 Heineken 6.50 4 3 Anheuser-Busch 6.43 5 2 PepsiCo 6.37 6 7 Asahi Breweries 6.00 7 6 Diageo 5.93 8 13 South African Breweries 5.64 9 10 Bass 5.58 10 -- Interbrew 5.48 11 11 Kirin Brewery 5.19 12 15 Scottish & Newcastle 5.12 13 14 Allied Domecq 5.07 14 9 Whitbread 4.54 15 12 Sapporo Breweries 3.74

Chemicals

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 5 Basf 6.96 2 1 Du Pont 6.84 3 2 Dow Chemical 6.56 4 3 Bayer 6.21 5 -- PPG Industries 5.79 6 11 Aventis[4] 5.26 7 7 Akzo Nobel 5.23 8 6 Henkel 5.12 9 12 Asahi Chemical Industry 4.84 10 -- DSM 4.79 11 -- Sumitomo Chemical 4.69 12 9 Imperial Chemical Inds. 4.67 13 -- Solvay 4.55 14 14 Mitsubishi Chemical 4.51 15 13 Norsk Hydro 4.24

Commercial Banks

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 4 Chase Manhattan 7.31 2 1 J.P. Morgan 7.22 3 6 Bank of America 7.00 4 2 Wells Fargo 6.95 5 3 HSBC Holdings 6.83 6 8 Credit Suisse Group 6.82 7 9 ABN Amro Holding 6.07 8 10 Fortis[5] 5.94 9 10 Deutsche Bank 5.91 10 7 UBS 5.87 11 13 Credit Agricole Group 5.54 12 11 Societe Generale 5.36 13 -- Hypovereinsbank 5.29 14 12 BNP Paribas[6] 5.23 15 15 Industrial Bank of Japan 4.47 16 14 Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi 4.33

Computer Hardware, Software

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 Intel 7.38 2 6 Sun Microsystems 7.14 3 2 Microsoft 7.11 4 9 Texas Instruments 6.83 5 3 Emc 6.82 6 8 Hewlett-Packard 6.80 7 7 Oracle 6.77 8 5 Dell Computer 6.74 9 4 IBM 6.57 10 10 Gateway 6.35 11 12 Apple Computer 6.22 12 15 Compaq Computer 5.70 13 13 Fujitsu 5.31 14 11 Seagate Technology 5.29 15 14 Quantum 5.29 16 -- NCR 5.11

Electronics, Electrical Equipment

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 General Electric 8.41 2 4 Sony 7.34 3 5 ABB[7] 6.62 4 8 Motorola 6.60 5 12 Siemens 6.23 6 9 Matsushita Electric Inds. 6.07 7 11 Toshiba 5.91 8 -- Electrolux 5.85 9 10 Royal Philips Electronics 5.85 10 13 Nec 5.80 11 14 Hitachi 5.66 12 -- Sharp 5.50 13 15 Mitsubishi Electric 5.26 14 -- Sanyo Electric 4.99 15 16 Samsung Electronics 4.91

Energy Transmission, Providers[8]

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 -- Enron 7.93 2 -- Duke Energy 7.05 3 -- Dynegy 6.64 4 -- Vivendi 6.50 5 -- Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux 6.21 6 -- TXU 6.08 7 -- Electricite de France 5.70 8 -- RWE Group 5.66 9 -- TransCanada PipeLines 5.66 10 -- Tokyo Electric Power 5.65 11 -- Kansai Electric Power 5.56 12 -- PG&E 5.47 13 -- Enel 5.37 14 -- Chubu Electric Power 5.13 15 -- Oao Gazprom 4.08

Engineering, Construction[8]

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 -- Fluor 6.83 2 -- Skanska 6.63 3 -- Bouygues 6.33 4 -- Takenaka 6.20 5 -- Shimizu 6.16 6 -- Obayashi 6.14 7 -- Hollandsche Beton Groep 6.03 8 -- Groupe GTM 6.02 9 -- Balfour Beatty 5.98 10 -- Kajima 5.85 11 -- Halliburton 5.76 12 -- Sekisui House 5.66 13 -- Taisei 5.39 14 -- Philipp Holzmann 4.67 15 -- Kumagai Gumi 3.78

Entertainment

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 Time Warner 7.28 2 4 News Corp. 7.23 3 3 Viacom 7.12 4 2 Walt Disney 6.98 5 5 CBS[9] 6.60 6 6 Seagram 5.48 Food, Drug Stores[8]

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 -- Walgreen 7.64 2 -- Safeway 7.08 3 -- Royal Ahold 6.95 4 -- Carrefour 6.92 5 -- Tesco 6.84 6 -- CVS 6.64 7 -- Albertson's 6.49 8 -- Kroger 6.37 9 -- Coles Myer 5.92 10 -- Groupe Auchan 5.74 11 -- Jusco 5.72 12 -- Groupe Casino[10] 5.68 13 -- J. Sainsbury 5.66 14 -- Ito-Yokado 5.48 15 -- Metro 5.40

Food Production, Processing

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 Nestle 7.64 2 3 Bestfoods 7.31 3 2 Unilever 6.82 4 7 Groupe Danone 6.51 5 5 ConAgra 6.50 6 10 Sara Lee 6.35 7 12 Nabisco Group Holdings 6.27 8 6 Kellogg 6.26 9 4 H.J. Heinz 6.13 10 8 Campbell Soup 5.68 11 13 Snow Brand Milk Products 5.50 12 14 IBP 5.32 13 -- Montedison 5.28 14 -- Tyson Foods 5.24 15 15 Archer Daniels Midland 5.06

Imaging, Office Equipment

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 5 Eastman Kodak 7.45 2 1 Xerox 7.27 3 4 Canon 7.14 4 2 3M 7.00 5 3 Fuji Photo Film 6.87 6 6 Ricoh 6.28 7 7 Konica 4.84 Industrial, Farm Equipment 2000 1999 Company SCORE 1 1 Caterpillar 7.10 2 2 Deere 6.84 3 -- ITT Industries 6.82 4 3 Ingersoll-Rand 6.73 5 -- Alstom 6.08 6 13 Invensys[11] 6.04 7 4 Mannesmann[12] 6.03 8 7 Komatsu 5.86 9 10 Thyssen Krupp 5.72 10 9 Mitsubishi Heavy Inds. 5.67 11 8 Kubota 5.65 12 -- Kv?rner Group 5.59 13 12 Iri 5.48 14 -- Kawasaki Heavy Inds. 5.23 15 14 Ishikawajima-Harima Inds. 5.10

Insurance: Life, Health

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 Northwestern Mutual Life 7.51 2 2 Tiaa-Cref 6.80 3 8 New York Life 6.55 4 4 Axa 6.51 5 5 Ing Group 6.27 6 6 Prudential (Britain) 6.27 7 7 Cigna 5.97 8 3 MetLife[13] 5.70 9 11 Nippon Life 5.47 10 12 Cnp Assurances 5.34 11 16 Meiji Life 5.32 12 14 Dai-Ichi Mutual Life 5.29 13 15 Sumitomo Life 5.12 14 9 Prudential of America 5.07 15 -- Mitsui Mutual Life 5.04 16 -- Aetna 4.57

Insurance: Property, Casualty

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 Berkshire Hathaway 7.65 2 3 American Intl. Group 7.57 3 4 Hartford Financial Svcs. 6.75 4 5 State Farm Insurance 6.44 5 8 Allstate 6.29 6 11 Allianz 6.25 7 10 Zurich Financial Services 6.13 8 12 Liberty Mutual Group 6.03 9 6 Swiss Reinsurance 5.72 10 9 Munich Re Group 5.60 11 13 Tokio Marine & Fire 5.48 12 15 Cgu 5.37 13 14 Royal & Sun Alliance Ins. 5.22 14 16 Assicurazioni Generali[14] 5.18 15 17 Loews 4.17 Mail, Pkg., Freight Delivery

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 United Parcel Service 8.20 2 2 FedEx[15] 7.08 3 3 TNT Post Group 6.41 4 4 Deutsche Post 6.32 5 5 Nippon Express 5.54 6 6 British Post Office 5.50 7 9 U.S. Postal Service 5.25 8 8 Japan Postal Service 5.19 9 -- Airborne Freight 5.08 10 10 La Poste 4.95 11 7 Pittston 4.76 Metals, Metal Products 2000 1999 Company SCORE 1 -- Illinois Tool Works 7.27 2 2 Alcoa 7.05 3 1 Fortune Brands 6.53 4 3 Pohang Iron & Steel 5.36 5 6 Nippon Steel 5.25 6 -- Reynolds Metals 5.22 7 7 Pechiney 5.18 8 5 Corus Group[16] 5.15 9 -- Crown Cork & Seal 5.13 10 11 Sumitomo Electric Inds. 4.86 11 13 Mitsubishi Materials 4.83 12 8 Usinor 4.72 13 12 Sumitomo Metal Inds. 4.53 14 -- Arbed 4.47 15 10 NKK 4.39 16 9 Kobe Steel 4.29

Motor Vehicles

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 2 Toyota Motor 7.39 2 1 Ford Motor 6.95 3 3 Honda Motor 6.62 4 4 DaimlerChrysler 6.48 5 5 Volkswagen 6.40 6 7 General Motors 6.00 7 -- Volvo 5.86 8 6 Bmw 5.62 9 9 Renault 5.23 10 11 PSA Peugeot Citroen 4.97 11 8 Mazda Motor 4.62 12 13 Isuzu Motors 4.36 13 10 Fiat 4.35 14 12 Nissan Motor 4.25 15 14 Mitsubishi Motors 4.21 Network Commun., Internet Tech.[8]

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 -- Nokia 8.12 2 3[17] Cisco Systems 7.56 3 7[17] Nortel Networks 7.34 4 2[17] Lucent Technologies 7.28 5 6[17] L.M. Ericsson 7.15 6 13[18] Alcatel 6.49 7 -- 3Com 6.38

Petroleum Refining

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 4 Royal Dutch/Shell Group 7.70 2 2 Bp Amoco 7.63 3 1 ExxonMobil[19] 7.60 4 5 Chevron 7.27 5 7 Total Fina Elf[20] 6.50 6 6 Texaco 6.30 7 9 Elf Aquitaine[21] 6.21 8 14 Petrobras 5.79 9 -- Repsol-Ypf 5.74 10 8 Usx 5.47 11 10 Eni 5.45 12 12 Pdvsa 5.25 13 13 Sk 4.95 14 -- Indian Oil 4.74 15 15 Sinopec 4.73 Pharmaceuticals

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 Merck 7.90 2 2 Pfizer 7.68 3 4 Johnson & Johnson 7.52 4 3 Bristol-Myers Squibb 7.24 5 6 Glaxo Wellcome 6.91 6 5 Eli Lilly 6.78 7 14 Roche Holding 6.58 8 11 SmithKline Beecham 6.55 9 8 Schering-Plough 6.48 10 7 Warner-Lambert[22] 6.38 11 -- Astrazeneca 6.16 12 4[23] Pharmacia[24] 5.83 13 10 Novartis Group 5.82 14 15 Takeda Chemical Inds. 5.62 15 9 Abbott Laboratories 5.59 16 12 American Home Products 5.29

Publishing

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 2 New York Times 7.78 2 1 Tribune 7.53 3 -- Pearson 6.89 4 5 Gannett 6.79 5 -- Knight Ridder 6.77 6 3 Bertelsmann 6.75 7 4 Reuters Group 6.71 8 6 McGraw-Hill 6.52 9 8 Thomson 6.12 10 10 R.R. Donnelley & Sons 5.98 11 9 Times Mirror 5.83 12 7 Reed Elsevier 5.77 13 11 Lagardere Groupe 5.67 14 12 United News & Media 5.50 15 -- Wolters Kluwer 5.42 Retailers: General, Specialty

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 Home Depot 8.33 2 2 Wal-Mart Stores 8.32 3 4 Target[25] 7.62 4 11 Federated Dept.Stores 7.00 5 3 Costco Wholesale[26] 6.75 6 8 May Department Stores 5.86 7 5 Marks & Spencer 5.47 8 10 Groupe Pinault-Printemps 5.37 9 9 Daiei 5.31 10 14 Sears Roebuck 5.29 11 7 Otto Versand 4.98 12 -- AutoNation 4.83 13 6 Mycal 4.39 14 15 Kmart 4.17 15 13 J.C. Penney 4.01 Securities, Diversified Financials

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 American Express 7.69 2 -- Goldman Sachs 7.56 3 5 Citigroup 7.39 4 4 Fannie Mae 7.23 5 2 Morgan Stanley Dean Witter 7.21 6 3 Merrill Lynch 7.19 7 -- Charles Schwab 7.10 8 6 Freddie Mac 6.54 9 -- Aon 6.47 10 8 Lehman Brothers Holdings 6.21 11 9 Paine Webber Group 6.19 12 -- Household International 6.01 13 7 Bear Stearns 6.01 14 11 Nomura Securities 5.10 15 -- KJD 4.78 Soap, Cosmetics

2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 Procter & Gamble 7.45 2 3 Colgate-Palmolive 6.89 3 4 L'Oreal 6.65 4 2 Gillette 6.49 5 5 Estee Lauder 6.39 6 7 Shiseido 5.64 7 8 Kao 5.60 8 10 Beiersdorf 5.55 9 6 Avon Products 5.43 10 9 LVMH 5.19 11 11 Reckitt Benckiser[27] 4.87 12 12 Kanebo 4.47 13 -- Lion 3.92 Telecommunications 2000 1999 Company SCORE

1 1 SBC Communications 7.29 2 11 Deutsche Telekom 6.19 3 12 Nippon Tel. & Tel. 6.05 4 14 Telefonica 6.03 5 -- Cable & Wireless 5.99 6 7 BT 5.98 7 9 GTE[28] 5.94 8 5 WorldCom[29] 5.94 9 10 France Telecom 5.92 10 6 Verizon Communications[30] 5.87 11 -- BCE 5.82 12 4 Sprint 5.78 13 2 BellSouth 5.76 14 17 Telecom Italia Group[31] 5.63 15 3 AT&T 5.29

FOOTNOTES

-- Not on last year's list. [1]Name changed from AlliedSignal. [2]Name changed from British Aerospace. [3]Name changed from Aerospatiale. [4]Name changed from Rhone-Poulenc and reclassified as a pharmaceuticals company since the survey was conducted. [5]Rank last year in insurance: life, health. [6]Name changed from Banque Nationale de Paris. [7]Name changed from ABB Asea Brown Boveri. [8]New category. [9]Acquired by Viacom, May 4, 2000. [10]Majority-owned by Fonciere Euris. [11]Name changed from BTR Siebe. [12]Acquired by Vodafone AirTouch, April 12, 2000. [13]Name changed from Metropolitan Life. [14]Reclassified as a life and health insurance company since the survey was conducted. [15]Name changed from FDX. [16]Name changed from British Steel. [17]Rank last year in electronics, electrical equipment. [18]Rank last year in telecommunications. [19]Name changed from Exxon. [20]Name changed from Total Fina after acquisition of Elf Aquitaine, Feb. 9, 2000. [21]Acquired by Total Fina, Feb. 9, 2000. [22]Acquired by Pfizer, June 19, 2000. [23]Rank last year in chemicals. [24]Name changed from Monsanto after acquisition of Pharmacia & Upjohn (1999 rank: 13), April 12, 2000. [25]Name changed from Dayton Hudson. [26]Name changed from Costco Cos. [27]Name changed from Reckitt & Colman. [28]Acquired by Bell Atlantic, now Verizon Communications, June 30, 2000. [29]Name changed from MCI WorldCom. [30]Name changed from Bell Atlantic. [31]Acquired by Olivetti, May 21, 1999.