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Apple beats out Amazon, Microsoft, Disney to earn world’s most admired company yet again

Fortune’s annual most admired ranking for companies around the world is out today. And Apple continues its long-running domination of this survey as it again beat out Amazon, Microsoft, and Disney for first place.

For the 2021 edition, Fortune narrowed down over 1,500 companies to the most admired in the world with the help of Korn Ferry and almost 4,000 corporate executives, directors, and analysts voting in a survey.

The study included 9 criteria:

To determine the best-regarded companies in 52 industries, Korn Ferry asked executives, directors, and analysts to rate enterprises in their own industry on nine criteria, from investment value and quality of management and products to social responsibility and ability to attract talent. A company’s score must rank in the top half of its industry survey to be listed.

Fortune says this is Apple’s 14th year topping the world’s most admired list. While Apple was able to beat out other tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft, Fortune notes that Disney – which came in 4th place – has topped the entertainment category for an impressive 18 years.

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Rounding out the top 10 is Starbucks, Berkshire Hathaway, Alphabet, JP Morgan Chase, Netflix, and Costco. You can check out the full rankings from Fortune here. The full rundown for each company for the 2021 study don’t seem to be showing up at the time of writing.

While this study isn’t just about financial performance, Apple had a huge 2020 capping it off with its first ever quarter that surpassed $100 billion revenue.

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Avatar for Michael Potuck Michael Potuck

Michael is an editor for 9to5Mac. Since joining in 2016 he has written more than 3,000 articles including breaking news, reviews, and detailed comparisons and tutorials.