Apple surpasses Microsoft as the best-managed company in the US

BUSINESS INSIDER

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.

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…