Dive Brief:
- Johnson & Johnson continued its reign as the most admired drugmaker in the world on Monday, ranking 13th in Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies list for 2017.
- It was the only pharmaceutical company to crack the top 50 — what Fortune calls the All-Stars list. To compile that list, the magazine partnered with consultancy firm Korn Ferry Hay Group to survey 3,800 analysts, directors and executives from the biggest businesses around the globe about which companies they most admire.
- Companies more frequently cited were awarded higher scores, and thereby higher rankings. Insufficient response rates among some industries made comparing scores a bit tricky, however. Apple Inc. topped the All-Stars list, a feat it has accomplished every year since 2008, despite not having a score. Amazon.com and Starbucks finished second and third with scores of 7.15 and 8.36, respectively, while Johnson & Johnson scored 8.06.
Dive Insight:
Fortune also does an industry-by-industry breakdown of the most admired companies. Johnson & Johnson has topped the pharmaceutical companies list for four years straight.
Trailing it this year were Roche and Novartis, which tied for second place. Merck, Amgen, Pfizer and Gilead took fourth through seventh place, while AbbVie and Eli Lilly rounded out the group, tied at eighth.
Determining the industry rankings is actually the precursor to assembling the All-Stars list. For the 2017 installment, Fortune and Korn Ferry Hay Group identified 680 companies — spanning 28 countries and 51 industries — that led their fields in revenue.
The pollsters then asked higher ups and analysts "to rate enterprises in their own industry on nine criteria, from investment value and quality of management and products to social responsibility and ability to attract talent." To make it onto an industry-level most admired list, a company must score higher than at least half of its industry peers.
To be considered for the All-Stars list, a company must score either in the top 20% for their industry or have been in the top 25% in the overall 2016 surveys. Only executives and analysts that responded to the industry-level survey were asked to weigh in on the All-Stars survey.
Though Johnson & Johnson was the sole representation for pharma on the All-Stars list, two other healthcare-related companies made it as well: CVS Healthcare and 3M, which, among many other things, manufactures medical products.