Thomson Reuters today published its first "Top 100 Global Technology Leaders" list, designed to pinpoint and celebrate "the industry's most operationally sound and financially successful organizations." The list's top five companies are Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, IBM, and Alphabet.
Apple sits in sixth place, followed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, SAP, Texas Instruments, and Accenture. Thomson Reuters explained that it assessed each company using a 28-data-point algorithm to "objectively identify organizations with the fortitude for the future in today's complex business environment."
Specifically, each company saw its performance in eight categories measured before being ranked: Financial, Management and Investor Confidence, Risk and Resilience, Legal Compliance, Innovation, People and Social Responsibility, Environmental Impact, and Reputation.
"Tech companies operate at warp speed confronting competitive, regulatory, legal, financial, supply chain and myriad other business challenges. Oftentimes, their financial success overshadows their operational integrity, making it difficult to identify those organizations with true longevity for the future," said Alex Paladino, global managing director of the Thomson Reuters Technology Practice Group. "With the Top 100 Global Tech Leaders, we've identified the unique data points that embody technology-industry leadership in the 21st century; congratulations to the companies that made the list."
Outside of the top 10, companies like Amazon, Facebook, Mastercard, Samsung, Qualcomm, and Pegatron made it onto the list. These remaining 90 companies on the list are not ranked, but were measured and added based on the same 28-factor algorithm as the top 10. The entire list was restricted to companies that have at least $1 billion in annual revenue as well.
The full report goes into greater detail and breaks down how each individual category was researched for the companies. For example, the number of granted patents that are issued each year factored into Innovation, and an overall news sentiment and global media score measured a company's Reputation. For Legal Compliance, Thomson Reuters measured the amount of litigation where the company was a defendant "in the areas of employment/labor, intellectual property, commercial law and contracts, civil rights, and unfair competition."
The researchers didn't go into Apple's performance statistics for each of the eight categories, but they did provide a few tidbits about the overall rankings. In total, 45 percent of the 100 companies are headquartered in the United States, followed by Japan and Taiwan tied in second place with 13 companies each, and then India with five. In terms of continents, North America led with 47 companies, Asia followed closely with 38, Europe had 14, and Australia had one (stock transfer company Computershare).
Apple topped a few lists over the past year, including Interbrand's "2017 Best Global Brands," Fortune's "World's Most Admired Companies," and climbing to become the World's Most Profitable Company on the Fortune Global 500 list. Conversely, in December Apple dropped to 84th on Glassdoor's annual list of the best companies to work for in the United States, after earning the 10th spot on the same list years prior in 2012.
Top Rated Comments
Damn I miss Steve Jobs. Apple just no longer innovates like it used to.
I'm not fan of Google, but I'd have to say many services/products Google offers is superior to what Apple has to offer.
This is the kind of post that just makes people like you lose all credibility. Take your elementary stance on Apple Pencil for example. You dismiss the leading digital pen as a "stylus" that's "been around for years." Do you realize how much of tech has "been around for years" but it's all about advancements and how the technology is integrated with software? Ever try to use an early stylus? Smartphone cameras have been around for years too. Ever try to get a good picture from an early one?
Don't you know Apple Pencil is leading in latency, making it the fastest digital pen in the world, and widely considered the "best" of styluses? I'm not saying it's this showstopping innovation, but they have quietly made the best stylus available.
Apple isn't always first, but they typically make things the best they can possibly be.
Dismissing Apple's industry leading silicon (innovation) as just "Throw a faster processor in" is a perfect example of how Apple innovation haters ignore enormous technical accomplishments.
Do you have any idea how good Apple silicon really is or at least how much better it is than the competition? Forget better integration with software...these chips are insanely powerful [insert lazy throttling joke] and will most likely lead to Apple designing their own chips for all products.
FaceID is innovative. Don't like it? Fine, but it's not going away and they can do A LOT more with 3d face mapping, facial recognition, the truedepth camera, etc than a silly fingerprint reader everyone wants to cling to.
In their first OLED foray on mobile phones, Apple scored the best screen ever tested. Yes, Apple's criticizied "built by Samsung" screen is yet still better than Samsung's own Samsung panels.
Their iPhone X camera scored the best STILL Camera ever tested by the only universally recognized testing company for smartphone cameras. Yes, it scored better than the Pixel 2 for still photos.
Apple owns the tablet market for a reason. The iPad Pro line is incredibly good and a joy to use.
The Apple Watch has quietly taken over not only the smart watch market, but the entire watch industry as the best selling watch in the world. It can make calls and reliably track health data with more to come including glucose monitoring and EKG.
These companies aren't producing magic, but if you objectively look at Apple and their accomplishments, it's truly amazing. Phones are not going to fly you to the moon, but the iPhone X for example is a long way from the iPhone 6 of just 3.5 years ago. People forget how far stuff comes because it still is a slab with a glass screen.
iMac 5k is a nice product
Apple Pencil - you mean a stylus which has been around for years
iPad Pro - throw in a faster processor more ram, slap the word pro on it and raise the price - not sure how that's considered innovation.
Don't get me wrong, I own all of those items (I have an apple watch S0), but listing them as examples of innovation is questionable imo
Of all of these the Apple Pencil is probably the most innovative because of it's touch sensitivity, but the design of the pencil itself is rather pedestrian with its awkward charging method, easy-to-lose cap, and no good way to store the pen with iPad. On top of that Apple has done little to help devs make it a "must have" for artists or note takers. It's still just an optional accessory that most forego. That's not showing leadership.
To me leadership is when others follow you. It's when Apple debuted a blue all-in-one and then others ran out to copy it. It's when Apple unveiled a (for it's time) the thinnest, lightest, sleekest full-featured laptop ever -- the original TiBook -- and it completely transformed how laptops were designed. Its the PMG5 with it's easy to remove door. It's the iPod and iTunes Store, the iPhone, The MBA. These are all products that changed not only industries but, in many cases, society. Ask a anyone born after 1992 how many mix tapes they've made in there life. Most will say they never even owned a cassette player.
OTOH every product listed above likely sells in the millions, some even tens of millions -- yes, very successful. But they are still niche, not leadership, products.