The Worst Best Companies Lists

Harris Interactive came out with its new “Reputation Quotient” list. The research firm has conducted the study for 12 consecutive years. The poll is based on views about the “60 most visible companies” in the US. More than 30,000 people where interviewed to determine the latest ranks.

Somewhere, several years ago, the surveys about corporation reputations, brand values, and customer satisfaction become mixed together. That has become obvious to the corporate executives who run the companies which are on these lists. It is less obvious to the people, stock market analysts, opinion leaders,  executives, and academicians who are queried for these studies. No one bothers to tell them that they may be asked the same questions for several difference surveys over the course of a year.

There are not really a number of  these polls anymore.There is just one big one, which is broken into a hundred pieces. Scores of research firms and magazines, each of which want its reputation or brand valuation list to be the best publicized, the best-remembered, or the most well-regarded push toward the top of the list list. Makers of lists about well-regarded companies now compete with one another for the title of the the most popular list. Each uses tools like sample sizes and the quality of its respondents to make its case. A survey of CEOs is better than one of housewives.

The Harris “Reputation Quotient” survey is a waste of time. The companies at the top of these lists rarely change until one falls from grace. Recently that company has been Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), which had its reputation battered by quality control issue for some of its over-the-counter drugs. J&J’s place on these lists will erode, as Toyota’s did last year.

Anyone who keeps track of all the reputation, most admired and most valuable brands lists can name most of the top ten or so without a moment’s thought. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL),  Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) are always near the top. The results of the Harris list and those like it are nearly preordained now to the extent that any survey which covers reputation or admiration is hopelessly flawed if the names of these few “best” companies fall even a bit below the top tier.

The villains are also predictable. AIG (NYSE: AIG), in the minds of the public one of the great monuments of Wall St. greed and deception, is at or near the bottom of any really good list. The tens of billions of dollars taxpayers spent to bail out the company out also helps weigh it down. Nearly as low are Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Citigroup (NYSE: C). Oddly enough, Citi is there for incompetence. Goldman is there because it is too competent and has used its skills to take unfair advantage of its customers and competitors. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) are also near the bottom of most of these lists, including the Harris one. The presence of the two together shows that the public has no skill to make out the subtle difference between a badly run big bank and one that is operated well.

No list of disreputable companies can be complete without an airline, a failed car company, and a multinational oil company. Harris does not disappoint. Among the bottom ten companies on its “Reputations of the Most Visible Companies; 2011” list are Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), GM (NYSE: GM), Chrysler, BP plc (NYSE: BP) and Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL).

There are too many reputation lists. They all blend together. That means that most of them are irrelevant. And, as people can guess the results before they are released, it comes to the point where none of them is any good.

Douglas A. McIntyre