The score is a measure of “the reputation of the companies that matter most in the minds of Americans,” Axios wrote on Wednesday. The report added that market research company Harris has been using this methodology since 1999.
Here are the top 10 companies on the list:
- Nvidia
- 3M
- Fidelity Investments
- Sony
- Adidas company
- United States of America
- Honda Motor Company
- Patagonia
- apple
- Samsung
Nvidia’s No. 1 ranking shows how quickly it has jumped into the public consciousness: The tech giant, which currently boasts a market capitalization of more than $2.5 trillion, didn’t even make last year’s list of the 100 most visible American companies.
The company was founded out of a Denny’s breakfast kiosk in 1993, and has been led by co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang ever since. Amazon, Google, Meta, and Tesla all use Nvidia computer chips, which include chip models specifically designed for AI development.
Nvidia’s success has turned Huang into one of the 20 richest people in the world. His net worth is estimated at just over $90 billion. According to Forbes.
Nvidia and second-place 3M — a multi-industry conglomerate based in Maplewood, Minnesota — were the only companies on the list with “excellent” reputations. 3M sells a wide range of consumer products, from command strips and duct tape to hard hats and face masks, and currently has a market cap of $55 billion.
The ranking somewhat signals a changing of the guard: Patagonia, the No. 1 company last year, is now in eighth place. The other consumer brands from last year’s top five — Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Chick-fil-A — ranked 11th, 13th and 21st, respectively. They all now have a ‘very good’ reputation, down from ‘excellent’.
John Deere, No. 3 on last year’s list, did not qualify as one of the nation’s most visible companies this year.
The lower end of the ranking shows more consistency: This year’s bottom five companies, which have the worst reputations among U.S. companies, all rated similarly poorly last year. The Trump Organization ranked last for the fourth year in a row, followed by social media platform X, Spirit Airlines, Meta, and Fox Corporation.
It is worth noting that the reputations of X, Spirit Airlines and Meta were downgraded from “poor” to “very poor” this year, according to the rating.
Many of the tech companies on the list received average to poor scores on one specific measure: “citizenship.”
The measure indicates how consumers perceive a brand’s social, economic and environmental responsibilities. Even Apple, which generally has a stronger reputation on issues like data privacy than many of its competitors, ranked 56th in citizenship.
This trend could be a sign of consumers pressuring companies to use their money more intentionally on social issues, from workplace inclusion to environmental sustainability. For example, climate change is Gen Z’s top personal concern, ahead of topics like unemployment and health care, researchers say. Deloitte Survey 2021.
A growing number of workers are even leaving their jobs if their employers’ environmental values don’t align with their own, CNBC Make It reported last year.
“Employees ask themselves: ‘Do I want to work for an organization that is irresponsible, has no purpose or meaning?’ Tom Lakin, global practice director at recruitment firm Robert Walters Group and expert on the future of companies. Work, he said, make it.
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