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Every year, Fortune magazine and Korn Ferry poll thousands of executives, directors, and analysts to identify the companies their peers most respect and admire. The result is the Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list, now in its 27th edition. The 2025 rankings, published January 29, 2025, reveal what drives lasting corporate admiration and offer practical lessons for any business building its own reputation.
Table of Contents
How the List Is Determined
Fortune partners with Korn Ferry to produce the list annually since 1997. Senior executives, board directors, and financial analysts from eligible companies are surveyed. For the overall All-Stars list, respondents identify the 10 companies they most admire from a pre-screened pool of companies that ranked in the top 25 percent of their industry the previous year, ranked in the top three within their industry, or appeared in the top 50 All-Stars the prior year.
Each company is scored across nine reputational attributes on a scale of zero (Poor) to ten (Excellent). The All-Stars are the top 50 companies across all industries. For the 2025 list, responses were collected from 3,380 executives, directors, and analysts.
2025 Top 10 and What They Share
The 2025 top 10 Most Admired Companies:
- Apple (18th consecutive year at number one)
- Microsoft
- Amazon
- Nvidia (rose six spots; first appearance in the top five)
- Berkshire Hathaway
- Costco Wholesale
- JPMorgan Chase
- Walmart
- Alphabet
- American Express
Four new entrants joined the top 50 in 2025: Caterpillar at number 40, ServiceNow at number 42, Taiwan Semiconductor at number 45, and Novo Nordisk at number 46. Each of these companies was propelled onto the list by broad confidence in their operations and demonstrated success in their respective fields.
The most striking observation from the 2025 list is stability. Four of the five companies that held the top positions in 2024 remained there in 2025. The top-ranked companies use scenario planning far more extensively than their peers and are significantly more optimistic about change and their workforce’s ability to adapt to disruption, according to Korn Ferry’s supplemental research.
The Nine Reputation Attributes
| Attribute | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Financial soundness | Stability, investment grade, consistent financial performance |
| Quality of management | Leadership effectiveness, strategic clarity, execution track record |
| Quality of products/services | Reliability, innovation, customer satisfaction |
| Ability to attract, develop, and retain talent | Employer reputation, culture, development programs |
| Innovativeness | New product development, process innovation, R&D investment |
| Long-term investment value | Consistent returns, growth trajectory, capital allocation |
| Wise use of corporate assets | Resource efficiency, strategic investment decisions |
| Social responsibility | Environmental, community, and ethical commitments |
| Global competitiveness | Effectiveness in international markets |
Among these, soundness of financial position is consistently the highest-weighted attribute. “The world’s most admired companies don’t earn their ranking through financial results alone,” said Laura Manson-Smith, Korn Ferry’s global leader of organization strategy consulting. “They also get there through the reputation of their leadership, their ability to attract and retain top talent, and a strong culture.”
What Any Company Can Learn from the Most Admired
The companies at the top of this list share several operational and reputational characteristics that are replicable regardless of company size.
They invest heavily in talent. The 2026 supplemental Korn Ferry research found that 55 percent of top Most Admired companies were devoting more time to hiring and developing talent than two years prior. Employer reputation and talent development are not separate from business strategy: they are central to it.
They embrace change proactively. Rather than treating disruption as a threat to manage, the most admired companies treat it as an opportunity. They are more likely than peers to conduct formal scenario planning and more optimistic about their workforce’s ability to adapt. This translates to higher stakeholder confidence and a stronger long-term reputation.
They maintain consistency. The companies near the top of the Most Admired list year after year are remarkable for their stability: stable leadership, stable financial performance, stable product quality. Admiration is built through consistency over time, not through any single initiative.
They integrate AI deliberately. In 2026, 51 percent of the World’s Most Admired Companies were redesigning specific roles to incorporate AI, compared to a much lower rate among peers. This signals that the most admired organizations are not resisting technological change but actively shaping how it integrates into their work.
Building the kind of reputation that makes a company admirable in any industry starts with the fundamentals: deliver consistently, lead with integrity, communicate transparently, and invest in the people and products that create long-term value. Our guides on company reputation and online reputation management cover how to build and protect that foundation.
What Changed in 2026
For the first time in the ranking’s history, generative AI was included as a discrete channel touchpoint in the 2026 edition, measured alongside the 13 traditional touchpoints. This reflects the rapid emergence of AI as a source through which stakeholders are actively forming opinions about companies. The addition acknowledges that what ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity say about a company is now a meaningful reputation input, not a fringe concern.
The 2026 top 10 remained largely stable from 2025. JPMorgan Chase moved from seventh to fifth, displacing Berkshire Hathaway to sixth. Apple held the number one position for the 19th consecutive year. For the reputation lessons from these rankings and how to apply them to your own organization, see our guides on what reputation means in business and CEO reputation and corporate reputation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do companies get on the Fortune Most Admired list?
Companies must rank in the top half of their industry in the annual survey conducted by Fortune and Korn Ferry. To be eligible for the All-Stars list, a company must have ranked in the top 25 percent of its industry the prior year. Respondents are executives, directors, and financial analysts who rate companies on nine attributes.
What is the most important attribute for making the Most Admired list?
Soundness of financial position consistently ranks as the most important attribute in Korn Ferry’s analysis. However, the companies at the very top of the list typically score well across all nine attributes. Financial stability is necessary but not sufficient.
Can small or mid-size companies make the Most Admired list?
The list focuses on large, globally recognized companies that can generate the survey volume required for reliable rankings. However, Fortune also produces industry-specific rankings where smaller companies within their sector can earn recognition.
West Virginia alumni with a background in marketing and sales for both established companies and startups.