The Grades Are In: Toyota Tops Motor Vehicles Category in Fortune Study

Automaker No. 24 in World’s Most Admired Company List

PLANO, TX -- February 19, 2015: Toyota went to the head of the class today, taking the top spot in the motor vehicles sector of Fortune magazine’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies. The automaker also scored well in a larger pool of peers, No. 24 overall.

Fortune’s annual list is widely considered to be the definitive report card on corporate reputation. The survey measures nine attributes considered crucial to a company’s global success, including quality of management, social responsibility, people management and global competitiveness, among others.

Toyota’s overall rank increased from 25th in 2014, and its No. 1 spot in the Motor Vehicles category also represented a bump (from No. 2 last year).

Toyota was also sixth for Community Responsibility and eighth in Effectiveness in Conducting a Global Business across all companies. Toyota is the only Japanese company in the overall Top 50.

“We’d like to thank Toyota team members, associates and partners worldwide for helping us achieve this honor,” said Jim Lentz, Toyota Motor North America chief executive officer. “We are dedicated to our customers, communities, and to leading the future of mobility. We’re proud to be recognized as one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies and a leader in our industry.”

The full list appears in the magazine’s March issue, available now on Fortune’s website at fortune.com/wmac and hits newsstands Feb. 23.

Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” Methodology

The Most Admired list is the definitive report card on corporate reputations. Our survey partners at Hay Group started with approximately 1,400 companies: the ¬Fortune 1,000—the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue and non-U.S. companies in ¬Fortune’s Global 500 database with revenues of $10 billion or more. Hay then selected the 15 largest for each international industry and the 10 largest for each U.S. industry, surveying a total of 668 companies from 29 countries. To create the 55 industry lists, Hay asked executives, directors, and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on nine criteria, from investment value to social responsibility. A company’s score must rank in the top half of its industry survey to be listed.

To arrive at the top 50 Most Admired Companies overall, the Hay Group asked 4,104 executives, directors, and securities analysts who had responded to the industry surveys to select the 10 companies they admired most. They chose from a list made up of the companies that ranked in the top 25% in last year’s surveys, plus those that finished in the top 20% of their industry. Anyone could vote for any company in any industry.