Management 14th Edition by Leslie Rue,Lloyd Byars ,Nabil Ibrahim

Exercise 7

Most Admired Companies
Every year since 1983 Fortune magazine has published the results of a survey that attempts to identify the most admired among the largest companies in the United States. For the 2011 list, the companies identified as the 10 most admired (in descending order) were:
1. Apple
2. Google
3. Berkshire Hathaway.
4. Southwest Airlines
5. Proctor Gamble
6. Coca-Cola
7. Amazon.com
8. FedEx
9. Microsoft
10. McDonald's
For the 2001 list, the companies identified as the 10 most admired (in descending order) were:
1. General Electric
2. Cisco System
3. Walmart
4. Southwest Airlines
5. Microsoft
6. Home Depot
7. Berkshire Hathaway
8. Charles Schwab
9. Intel
10. Dell Computer
Over the 10-year time span between the above lists, only three companies (Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, and Southwest Airlines) were on both lists. Pick one of the companies that is on the 2001 list and not on the 2011 list and identify one or more trends or forces in the company's external or internal environment that might help explain why the company dropped off the list.
Sources: Ahmad Diba and Lisa Muñoz, "America's Most Admired Companies," Fortune , February 19, 2001, pp. 64-66; and http://money.cnn/magazines/Fortune/mostadmired/2011/index.html. Accessed on January 12, 2012.