“‘Power lasts 10 years,’ goes an old Korean proverb. ‘Influence, not more than a hundred,'” Jena McGregor reports for BusinessWeek.
“Companies that once wielded a seemingly unshakeable hold over their industries—General Motors, Sony, Microsoft—now find themselves following the lead of more nimble players such as Toyota, Apple, and Google. ‘There’s no standing still,’ notes veteran strategy guru Gary Hamel. ‘Influence is like water, always flowing somewhere,'” McGregor reports.
“With that in mind, BusinessWeek developed a list of the World’s Most Influential Companies. We chose 10 companies that have devised winning strategies in their industries. They are the ones with the game-changing ideas, the greatest impact on consumers, and the bold tactics rivals emulate. None is infallible or without controversy. And our choices were more art than science. But we believe each company played a major role in business over the past year and could shape the corporate landscape for years to come,” McGregor reports.
Full article here.
In Apple’s profile, Peter Burrows writes, “It’s the epitome of cool—a company that has gained a cultlike following because it somehow manages to breathe new life into every category it touches. From sleek laptops to the even sleeker iPhone, Apple products are imaginative, irreverent, and pleasing to the eye. They’re fun to use and have wreaked havoc on competitors… Even amid a recession, Jobs is obsessing over new products. And he knows everyone else is obsessing over what he’ll do next.”
Apple’s page in the “Most influential” slideshow is here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “PaKo” for the heads up.]
On Wall Street, AAPL is one of the world’s most influenced stocks. So it all balances out.
While the article is a nice pat on the back for Apple, I question the soundness of the list based on some of the other nominees. For example:
Microsoft – No comment necessary
Intuit – If you use a Mac, FU
Autodesk – In the spaghetti code league, Autodesk and Microsoft are like the Lakers and Celtics.
Toyota – Maybe 5-10 years ago, but what have they given us since the Prius other than boring, boring cars. Hell Toyota makes Chevys look exciting.
Monsanto – Making food as unnatural as possible.
Saudi Aramco – The closest thing in the corporate world to a low-life drug dealer sucking his clients’ bank accounts dry.
News Corporation – “Fair and balanced,” need I say more.
Walmart – Killing small merchants, one town at at time.
They still count M$ as influential…because Windoze 7 is coming?!?
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
@84 Mac Guy
And that’s why the economy is crumbling. Those other companies are influential — just not always for good reasons. If there were more Apples out there, the economy would perhaps be better for it.
News Corp? Feared maybe but otherwise widely despised and very very old school. When a guy’s daughter lambasts her father about dyeing his own hair (very badly and obviously) because he can’t stand the thought of anyone actually knowing he dyes his hair (yes that out of touch with reality), it is rather difficult to feel this company is led by a visionary, especially when he only feels safe passing on power to his offspring.
“Wreaked”? I’m glad to see “wrought” go, because I’m opposed to language rules being excepted but….where and when did it go? Or is the writer just ignorant?