World's Most Admired Companies

16 of 50

General Electric

GE Energy's European headquarters in Belfort, France

MOST ADMIRED

Top 50 rank: 16
Rank in Electronics: 1
(Previous rank: 1)
Overall score: 7.07

Why it's admired

GE slips seven spots from No. 9 last year after an SEC investigation into the company's accounting practices at its GE Capital unit resulted in a $50 million civil settlement.

The conglomerate, whose products range from wind turbines to medical imaging devices, held the No. 1 spot from 2001 to 2002 and 2005 through 2007. And GE still ranks relatively high, thanks to years of continued growth and a history of consistently beating earnings estimates. Where it falls next year will be telling.

In December the company announced a complex $37 billion joint venture with Comcast that will eventually result in the cable company taking a controlling stake in GE's entertainment division NBC Universal. --C.T.

Should General Electric be admired, or what?

General Electric stats

Nine key attributes of reputation	Industry rank
Innovation	2
People management	1
Use of corporate assets	1
Social responsibility	1
Quality of management	1
Financial soundness	4
Long-term investment	3
Quality of products/services	1
Global competitiveness	1