It’s been said that a good reputation is worth its weight in gold. For the Top 20 companies on the Reputation Institute’s annual U.S. RepTrak 100 report, that couldn’t be truer.
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Who has the best reputation?
For the third year in a row, Amazon ranks at the top of the U.S. RepTrak 100. They’re followed by Hallmark and Samsung for win, place and show.
Rounding out the Top 5 we have Kellogg’s and Sony. The No. 6 spot goes to Johnson & Johnson, followed by Rolex, Intel, Netflix and the Walt Disney Company at No. 10.
The Reputation Institute solicited more than 83,000 ratings of companies during in the first quarter of 2016. It then came up with rankings based on ‘seven key rational dimensions of reputation.’ They are products and services, innovation, workplace culture, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance.
The remaining Top 20 most reputable companies in America are:
11. Campbell Soup Company
12. Fruit of the Loom
13. Michelin
14. LEGO Group
15. Nintendo (new to the list this year)
16. UPS
17. Clorox
18. Tiffany & Co.
19. Whirlpool
20. Adidas (new to the list this year)
Noticably absent from the list is Apple, which did not rank in the Top 100. The reason it didn’t show is up is threefold, according to
Reputation Institute: It got poor marks on workplace culture, governance and corporate citizenship — the latter perhaps owing to the debacle surrounding the company’s reluctance to unlock a certain iPhone.
What defines a great company?
In business, it’s not just about having the right product, price point or location. It’s about service. Your profits depend on it. Clark has long talked about the idea of romancing your customers. The reality is if you romance your employees by treating them well and valuing them in deed, not just in word, they’ll romance your customers.
Treating an employee well is not always about pay; there are other ways to do it too. And you can see the hustle in a business where employees feel cared about and valued.
Companies who understand about treating their employees well do so much better in the long run. Chick-fil-A is a prime example of a restaurant that values its employees and managers, and they are among the fastest growing, most profitable chains in the nation.
Another example is the regional convenience store chain Kwik Trip. Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel once profiled Kwik Trip and its fantastic employee benefits. The company does so much to try to create a sense of ownership among employees, or ‘co-workers’ as it calls them. Among the perks the company offers are the following:
- Employees get 40% of the company profits every year. Clark used to give his employees 25% of profits each year when he had a chain of travel agencies in the 1980s. The money was parceled out equally regardless of position. That made all employees equally accountable for our profitability. But Kwik Trip makes Clark look cheap!
- Employees own real estate with the company. Upon their five-year anniversary, employees receive one unit of ownership in store real estate and select headquarters buildings.
- Employees get sabbaticals. Any employee who stays with the company for 20 years receives a monthlong sabbatical. That’s in addition to normal vacation that is accrued after 20 years.
Remember, Kwik Trip is not a charity or a non-profit; this is a business making money and being successful because the employees are fully vested in the company’s success.
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