Mountain View, California — Global search engine behemoth Google, was crowned number one in a US poll measuring the reputations of America’s top companies, conducted by Harris Interactive on Monday. This year, we have a new most reputable company in America — Google.
Harris Interactive has just released its annual Reputation Quotient Report, conducted a survey of more than 30,000 respondents to identify the 60 most visible companies in the U.S. and rank them based on 20 different attributes, including financial performance, emotional appearance, social responsibility and leadership.
Google claimed first place from Berkshire Hathaway, on the strength of its financial achievements and public appreciation for its workers, said Robert Fronk, leader of New York-based Harris’s reputation-management practice, in an online video Tuesday. The survey found corporate reputations re-bouncing as the economy improves and the scandals of the financial crisis decline.
Google Inc. climbed from third place in last year’s survey and Johnson & Johnson kept its No. 2 ranking after a year of product recalls while BP, AIG bring up the caboose.
The two companies defeated Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which fell from first place to fourth in the annual survey of what the public considers of companies, said Fronk.
This year marks the 12th successive year that Harris has released the RQ poll. This years’ poll took an online format and involved 30,104 people. The “Reputation Quotient” is a number score out of 100 that is based on six categories of review — social responsibility, emotional appeal, products & services, workplace environment, financial performance and vision & leadership. Scores are broken into rankings – 80 + being excellent, 75-80 very good, 70-75 good and 65-70 fair.
The online survey unfurled “positive momentum” as to how the public views corporations, with opinions overall becoming steadily more favorable since 2009, according to Fronk.
Interestingly, people seemed to abstain from letting trouble at individual corporations taint opinions of entire sectors, the Harris poll indicated. “The public still considers that systemic selfishness, poor decision making and a lack of transparency and honesty are the norm across the category,” said Fronk.
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Technology companies dominated the top of the list. Google topped the survey list with a combined score of 84.05, which is excellent. Google ranked in the top 5 on all but one of the previously named categories of review. The one from which they fell out of the top 5 Emotional appeal. Johnson & Johnson placed second for the second year in a row with a score of 83.13. 3M rounded out the top 3 with a score of 82.56.
Other notable tech companies making to the top of the list were Apple (#5), Intel (#6), Amazon (#8), Sony (#14) and Microsoft (#16), all of whom received a rating higher than 80.
“There is still 44 percent who say that the reputation of corporate America is still falling, but that is down dramatically,” Fronk said in a telephone interview.
“We are seeing a more positive story beginning to develop.” “The only industry that broad brush painting is still occurring is the financial services sector,” Fronk said.
Key elements to reputation were trust, admiration, and respect along with being seen as a company that outperformed competitors while keeping ethics high.
Rounding out the bottom of the list were insurance conglomerates, banks, and oil companies. American International Group Inc., the New York-based insurer rescued in a $182.3 billion U.S. bailout, received the worst reputation ranking with a 47.77. BP, the company responsible for the worst oil spill in history, had the second-worst ranking.
Toyota Motor Corp., the automaker beset by recalls and reports of unintended acceleration in 2009 and 2010, dropped the most, from No. 20 to No. 43. Other companies that made the bottom tier of Harris Interactive’s list include Comcast, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, ExxonMobile, General Motors, Bank of America, Chrysler, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
The message from the US public was “Do well while doing good,” according to Fronk.