America's Most Admired Companies 2008

Top 20 Most Admired Companies

To create the top 20, Fortune and its survey partners at Hay Group asked the experts -- in this case, more than 3,700 people from dozens of industries -- to select the 10 companies they admire most. This year's winners all have strong records of innovation, leadership, and financial strength -- and their employees know it.

14 of 20

BMW

Top 20 rank: 14*
Rank in Motor Vehicles: 1

The German automaker has doubled the number of models, expanded its global manufacturing -- and fallen on its face with the disastrous acquisition and subsequent divestment of Britain's Rover Group. Yet even as it has transformed its operations, BMW has strengthened its image as the sporty and cool German luxury-car brand. BMW's biggest challenge: to achieve margins as fat as those of rival Daimler. That would make BMW's shareholders as happy as its drivers. -Peter Gumbel

See how BMW rates in 8 key areas

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Last updated March 03 2008: 2:10 PM ET