Business

These are the Best Run Companies in America

Posted on December 8, 2011 at 9:27pm by Becket Adams
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Some American companies have done incredibly well this year. A number of them have posted extraordinary financial results for 2011. Others have launched products that revolutionized markets. (Of course, many big public corporations also did very poorly. Several nearly destroyed their business and dragged down shareholder value with it.)

To identify the best run companies in the U.S., specific factors were reviewed:

Stock price
Changes in earnings per share
Major shifts in market share
Changes in management, among other data

Once the initial screen was complete, product launch success, financial results, success of new management and the performance of each company within its industry was reviewed.

Incidentally, the “best run companies” list does not include a large number of corporations from any single industry.

These are the best run companies of 2011:

Disney
CEO name (tenure): Robert Iger (6 years)
YTD stock: down 2 percent
Latest quarter EPS: up 15 percent to $0.77
Insider ownership: 7.6 percent
Key event: ESPN reaches 100 million households

Disney has done well because it follows a key premise of successful management. It sticks to its knitting and improves the operating efficiencies of businesses it already knows. Disney has added a number of channels that carry the ESPN name, taking advantage of what is arguably the most well-known name in sports media. And while it is difficult for any brand to accomplish, let alone a multi-decade-old one, the company has actually managed to keep the Disney brand pristine.

Brand research firm Interbrand ranks Disney as the number nine most valuable brand in the world, with brand equity of $29 billion — only slightly behind Apple’s. This permits the company to market its growing list of theme parks, films and Disney store locations.

Whole Foods
CEO name (tenure): John Mackey (21 years)
YTD stock: up 35 percent
Latest quarter EPS: up 32 percent to $0.50
Insider ownership: 12.0 percent
Key event: announced 1,000 store goal

Whole Foods was a niche food retailer for nearly two decades. Management recently decided to change that, and the company has embarked on plans that could easily double its size. Whole Foods has 316 stores in the U.S. and says it will take that number to 1,000 in the next few years.

It also plans further expansion into Canada and the UK. Wall St. has approved of the Whole Foods’ expansion plan for two reasons. The first is that the food chain is unusual in the industry because it has no debt. The second is that sales of organic foods have become attractive enough so that even big-box companies like Walmart and Target carry them.

Starbucks

CEO name (tenure): Howard Schulz (3 years, second tenure as CEO)
YTD Stock: up 36 percent
Latest Quarter EPS: Up 33 percent to $0.36
Insider ownership: 4.8 percent
Key Event: Opens 500th store in China

When Howard Schultz, Starbucks’s founder, returned to the helm of the company three years ago, it was in a shambles. It had expanded too quickly, particularly in the U.S., just as the economy hit a recession. Schultz retrenched, and then began to recreate the corporate image.

Among his most important decisions was to introduce the Via line of instant coffee, which allowed people to drink Starbucks coffee easily without going to stores. Additionally, Starbucks increased product distribution through other fast food outlets with its Seattle’s Best Coffee. Schultz also made simple changes to stores, which put baristas closer to customers. This became part of the original intimacy that allowed Starbucks to grow as a brand. Starbucks continues to diversify its risk beyond the store level. It recently bought Evolution Fresh as an attempt to move into the fresh juice market.

Oracle
CEO name (tenure): Larry Ellison (34 years)
YTD stock: up 0.5 percent
Latest quarter EPS: up 33 percent to $0.36
Insider ownership: 23.2 percent
Key event: buy cloud company “RightNow”

The company Larry Ellison founded continues to dominate the global enterprise software industry despite challenges from IBM, HP, and Microsoft.

Oracle recently bought RightNow, a cloud computing company, after two other recent buyouts of ATG and Fatwire. Oracle is one of the few large American corporations that has been able to successfully buy that which it cannot build quickly. Oracle has nearly 50 percent of the global database market, which is considered critical to the sale of its servers and consulting products to large IT businesses and corporate IT departments.

Microsoft

CEO name (tenure): Steve Ballmer (11 years)
YTD stock: down 8 percent
Latest quarter EPS: up 10 percent to $.68
Insider ownership: 10.42 percent
Key event: buys VoIP giant Skype

Microsoft has been called the worst-run American company for several years because it has had little success in its attempts to diversity beyond the aging Windows products.

But in 2011, it began to break away from its reliance on those products with several launches and acquisitions. The most important of these was the buyout of worldwide VoIP leader Skype, which has 663 million registered users. The deal gives Microsoft a huge base to market Windows cloud-based products, Xbox and other entertainment products, as well as the company’s Bing search engine.

Microsoft also gripped the only chance available to gain a large stake in the mobile operating system business. It set a deal with the world’s largest handset company, Nokia, to ship Windows mobile software on most Nokia phones. Many analysts believe the partnership phones will come to the market too late. The same observation held true when Google launched Android to compete with Apple. Microsoft is taking smart risks again and has the balance sheet to back them. On December 7, to the delight of shareholders, the company announced it would be releasing Windows 8 in the second half of 2012.

Yum! Brands
CEO name (tenure): David Novak (11 years)
YTD stock: up 18 percent
Last quarter EPS: up 8 percent to $0.80
Insider ownership: 2.9 percent
Key event: buys Little Sheep Food chain in China

Many restaurant industry analysts say the future of fast food is in China. The U.S. has begun to overflow with locations as sales in Europe and Japan have slowed with the regional economies.

Yum! Brands has been working its way into China — its largest growth market — with the purchase of local fast food chain “Little Sheep Food.” Yum’s Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise is the world’s largest. When it released Q3 numbers, the company said it would open 600 new stores in China by year-end. Yum has balanced its portfolio of brands that includes Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Taco Bell. It does not rely on any single one of these brands exclusively as McDonald’s must. Together, Yum’s brands have 36,000 locations worldwide, which rival McDonald’s total distribution network.

See the best run companies in America.

(24/7 Wall St./The Blaze)

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Comments (40)

pmjr-jones
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:31pm
how can i start a business with them in the way?
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pmjr-jones
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:28pm
ceo’s ran htis country to the ground and blamed all the unions thnx. now look what we have to look forward for
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pmjr-jones
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:23pm
this country want stay afloat with these at the top!
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pmjr-jones
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:21pm
sell ilegal drugs behind the sences?
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pmjr-jones
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:20pm
sell ilegal drugs behind the scenes?
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pmjr-jones
Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:18pm
behind the scenes what do they do; do they have swiss bank acts?
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gmoneytx
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 2:38pm
That’s funny, the 99% OWS are b!tching about big corporations, and yet all the companies on this list in one way or another are supported by these idiots…funny thing about capitalism.
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JustPeachy
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 5:15pm
Congrats also to Amazon.com! (#2) I think that was yet another company that began out of someone’s home? Way to go! :-)
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csm-101
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 4:34pm
Costco!
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- Freedom from liberals
  Posted on December 9, 2011 at 5:01pm
  Michelle Obama and the food patrol told them they had to change the recipe to make it more healthy.
  Report Post »
southernhart
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 11:20am
I don’t understand this article at all. There are conflicts with an article published a week or so ago where at least one of these companies was on a list of companies not surviving the next year.
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- dontbotherme
  Posted on December 9, 2011 at 2:01pm
  Southernhart – Ditto…
  Report Post »
BloodyArtist22
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 11:07am
Home Depot — run by US veterans. :D
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- NR30
  Posted on December 9, 2011 at 2:15pm
  Yes they are run by Veterans, but I know many employees and they hate working there because the top management treats them very badly. Their schedules are made at corperate and if the employees ask for a day off or want to switch with another employee, they are told to contact corperate and the HR people tell them that they can not change the schedule because it is done by a computer… Classic “passing the Buck”. “Great Company”- sarcasm…
  
  Go shop at Lowes….(even thought they are more expensive.)
  Report Post »
Stevsea
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 9:55am
I would have guessed that Caterpillar (CAT) would have been in the top five. I was surprised that it didn’t make the list at all.
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sandy21957
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 8:37am
Ya lost me with CBS. Really? Haven’t watched them in years.
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Macman1138
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 5:50am
What? No Apple Computer?
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- jasonbourne
  Posted on December 9, 2011 at 7:18am
  Me thinks you need to click on the red link that says “See the top 3 best run companies in America”.
  
  Apple’s #1 …imagine that.
  Report Post »
- BloodyArtist22
  Posted on December 9, 2011 at 11:14am
  Herp derp.
  Report Post »
KeystoneState
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 3:12am
Finally some good news, God bless America!
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Cheuvront
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 1:43am
I think it is funny that to be a successful business it has to be publicly traded. I work for a great well run company and we are privately held and successful. I work for Trader Joe’ s and is sure the hell beats the pants off of most companies.
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- thekuligs
  Posted on December 9, 2011 at 9:36am
  It is just because, if you aren’t publicly traded less of your info is out there to judge you by. Don’t take it personally all my California Conservative friends like Trader Joes.
  Report Post »
jollylama
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 1:07am
me loves da taco bell!
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sillyfreshness
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 12:44am
Yeah some of those companies I think were on the “death watch” list that TheBlaze ran last week (like the Home Depot).
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Secret Squirrel
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 11:38pm
.
Who wrote this?
Microsoft stock is down 8% and they are on the list?
Oracle stock is up 0.5% (less than inflation) Larry Ellison
uses Oracle as his personal yacht fund and spends millions
on his America‘s cup boat and it’s on the list?
I‘m glad you’re not advising me.
I‘m glad I’m out of the market…………………forever.
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- pmjr-jones
  Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:33pm
  who cares about the numbers how can i get rich when they hide the numbers?
  Report Post »
hi
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 10:57pm
I love Taco Bell!!! It should be number one!!! Mmmmmm.
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- positive1
  Posted on December 8, 2011 at 11:35pm
  How about Sports Authority? It’s a great company
  Report Post »
Cheekymnky2
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 10:25pm
Key Event: ppens 500th store in China … what’s a “ppens?”
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- Stoic one
  Posted on December 8, 2011 at 11:16pm
  be nice –opens….p & o are right next to each other on a standard qwerty keyboard and apparently a spellchecker is not allowed at the Blaze.
  Report Post »
Cabinman
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 9:54pm
KFC brass fooled around with the best chicken ever & now it’s not eatable. Just how stupid is that?????
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- MrMagoo
  Posted on December 8, 2011 at 10:26pm
  You got that right.Every time my Family and I think we should give the once great and tasty KFC food another try,we all look at each other and say…..ummm,no thanks.
  We all remember the nausea,upset stomachs and trips to the bathroom we‘ve had the last few times we’ve eaten it.Its not the KFC of old for whatever reason.
  Report Post »
- CatB
  Posted on December 8, 2011 at 11:02pm
  I don’t know .. but I would have to bet that it is the oil that they are cooking it in. I worked for them for a short time in the 1970′s and know what makes the chicken so good is that it is cooked in a special oil under pressure. I don’t see any reason why they would change anything else that C. Sanders put in the original recipe. I would guess that they have changed the oil to make the government get off their backs.
  Report Post »
- Freedom from liberals
  Posted on December 9, 2011 at 5:03pm
  Sorry posted in wrong place. Michelle Obama and the food patrol told KFC they had to change the recipe to make it more healthy.
  Report Post »
PROAMERICAN
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 9:52pm
Yes, I don’t like navigating away from The Blaze!
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- pmjr-jones
  Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:24pm
  they selling ilegal drugs?
  Report Post »
CanteenBoy
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 9:51pm
Figured Apple was top five. I sold at $200… boned myself!
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- KeystoneState
  Posted on December 9, 2011 at 3:10am
  Apple was #1,read the whole article.
  Report Post »
Wdawg
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 9:37pm
Jeez, a little lazy. Here are the top 3:

3. CBS

2. Amazon

1. Apple
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- Secessionista
  Posted on December 8, 2011 at 9:45pm
  Thank you for finishing writing the article for the blaze my friend! ;-)
  Report Post »

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