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Apple has taken the No. 1 spot in a widely-watched annual ranking of America's best-run companies.
Tim Cook's company dethroned Microsoft to take the top spot in Drucker Institute's Management Top 250 ranking, ending the PC maker's four-year streak at the top of the pile.
Microsoft was pushed down into third place, while rapidly growing chipmaker Nvidia ranked second on the list.
Intel ranked fourth, Alphabet in eighth, and Adobe in ninth.
The list's top 10 included four non-tech companies: Mastercard, which ranked fifth; Johnson & Johnson, in sixth place; Procter & Gamble, in seventh; and tobacco giant Philip Morris International in 10th.
The Management Top 250 ranking was developed by the Drucker Institute and The Wall Street Journal to provide a holistic measure of corporate effectiveness. It assesses companies' performance in five key areas: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility, and financial strength.
The ranking includes 660 US companies whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Stock Market and that meet criteria related to their value and prominence.
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Apple's innovation score in the Drucker Institute's ranking helped boost it to the top spot. It scored 99.9 in this category, higher than any other company. In the top 25 of the ranking, only Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Walmart scored higher than 90 points for innovation.
In 2024, Apple launched the iPhone 16, the first phone made by the Cupertino-based tech giant to incorporate its new Apple Intelligence AI system.
Alongside a high score for innovation, Apple also ranked second highest in the ranking for its financial performance. It was bested only by Nvidia, which in 2024 has become the biggest company in the world by market capitalization. Booming demand for its AI chips has pushed the company's share price skywards, leading to an overall valuation of over $3.5 trillion at its peak in November.
Apple was weakest in the Drucker ranking in employee engagement and development. Its score of 62.7 in that category was the lowest of any company in the top 10.
