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of the world’s 100 most respected companies.
The US weekly business magazine, Barron’s, has presented its seventh annual ranking of the world’s 100 most respected companies.
British American Tobacco is the world’s second largest quoted tobacco group by global market share with brands sold in more than 180 markets.
The company produces 724 billion cigarettes in 41 countries employing 60 000 people worldwide.
Mr Lovemore Manatsa is the managing director of British American Tobacco in Zimbabwe.
The 2010 survey elicited responses from 92 professional investors, ranging from proprietors of small advisory firms to the chief investment officers of money management giants.
The top 10 most respected companies are solely US firms: Amazon.com, Berkshire Hathaway, IBM, McDonald’s, Google, 3M, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, with Apple named as Barron’s most respected company for the second year running.
British American Tobacco was ranked 92 in this prestigious ranking.
According to survey results, 60 percent of respondents chose the statements ‘Respect’, “Highly Respect” and “Respect Somewhat”, while 26 percent said they “Don’t Respect” the group, which was ranked ahead of major conglomerates including Ecopetrol, China Construction Bank, BP, Citigroup, Bank of America, Rosneft, Sberbank and Gazprom.
The survey included the world’s 100 largest companies based on total stock-market capitalisation on December 31 2010.
Survey participants were asked to select one of four statements reflecting their view of each company: “Highly Respect”, “Respect”, “Respect Somewhat” and “Don’t Respect”.
The managers were also asked to rank the factors they consider most important in determining respect for corporations and were invited to contribute comments on individual companies.
Participants said the most important factor in defining respect is “sound business strategy”, which gained the most votes – from 32 percent of money managers and eclipsing the previous year’s top factor, “strong management”, which was most important to 28 per cent of respondents.
“Ethical business practices” ranked third (12 percent) and “competitive edge” tied for fourth (12 percent). Interestingly, only 7 percent of respondents now consider revenue and profit growth a determinant of respect.