The World’s most valuable and forerunner corporations and Brands The 16 collected and powerful public corporations companies, aware of the different metrics used to rank the four existing core lists. Sales, profits, assets and market value; brand value and company reputation are covered by “The World’s Most Valuable Brands” and “The World’s Most Reputable Companies”; and employee number statistics are provided; Given its four distinct but highly significant metrics, was given accordingly greater weighting as we settled upon a preliminary ranking. To finalize our order, also factored in where the companies were placed on the lists published by Global Finance and New Scientist. Moreover, crucially, we relied on our separate research into the different firms under consideration. This last point was particularly important when it came to trying to gauge the corporations’ political influence – as well as that of their CEOs – plus their global pervasiveness and the impact they’ve had on their respective industries.
1. American International Group Inc.
With roots traced back to 1919, American International Group (AIG) is a global insurance company with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. AIG provide a range of insurance products to support its clients in business and in life, including: general property, life insurance, and retirement and financial services through the General Insurance, Life and Retirement and Investments business units.
2. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
In 2011 Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. was held on a list of interlinked companies selected by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ideologists that were introduced to as a “capitalist network that runs the world” by New Scientist magazine. Based out of New York, the universal business and financial aids corporation has a presence in every continent except for Antarctica, employing 32,900 staff globally and boasting a market value of $75.1 billion and $911.5 billion in assets. The company also found a place on Forbes’ 2013 “The World’s Most Valuable Brands” list, thanks to a brand value of $6.8 billion. That same year, CEO Lloyd Blankfein placed 27th in the magazine’s rundown of “The World’s Most Powerful People.” Plus, four years previously, Blankfein topped Vanity Fair’s analysis of the “top 100 Information Age powers,” triumphing over Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Apple’s Steve Jobs.
3. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)
German automotive colossus Bayerische Motoren Werke AG commonly referred to as (BMW) is based in Munich and employs 110,351 people globally. The company was established in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines. The firm also owns Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, and it produces armored vehicles throughout its High-Security scale as well as manufacturing motorcycles. Part of the German “Big Three” – a trio of high-end automakers that also incorporates Audi and Mercedes-Benz – BMW placed 11th in Forbes’ 2013 breakdown of the world’s most influential brands, because of a brand value of $27.9 billion. BMW also made the top 50 of Forbes’ 2014 “Global 2000,” with $101.1 billion in sales. Besides which, that same year it ranked third in the Reputation Institute’s rundown of the world’s most well-known companies.
4. Rosneft OAO
(PJSC) Rosneft Oil Company held by Russia’s government, company headquartered in Moscow. PJSC is the biggest publicly listed petroleum company in the world. In 2012 Global Finance magazine ranked it third in its rundown of the “25 Most Influential Companies Over the Past 25 Years.” Two years later, Forbes placed Rosneft 34th on its “Global 2000” power list, citing the corporation’s market value at $70 billion and profits at $12.8 billion. Cooperatively, it is one of the most comprehensive oil companies, ranking 24 in terms of revenue. The firm operates in more than twenty countries around the world.
5. Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell PLC, generally known as Shell, is a Dutch-British oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in England. In 2014 the company placed 11th on Forbes’ “Global 2000” power list, with purchases of $451.4 billion. Meantime, in 2013 it additionally attained a spot in the magazine’s breakdown of most powerful brands on the planet, with a brand value of $7.6 billion. Operating in every continent barricading Antarctica, the firm boasts a global staff of 92,000 and a market value of $234.1 billion. It has secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange. As of January 2013, Shell’s largest shareholder was Capital Research Global Investors with 9.85% ahead of BlackRock in second with 6.89%. New CEO Ben van Beurden – who was instated at the beginning of 2014 – has been credited with kickstarting the company’s ailing chemicals department.
6. Bank of China Limited
Bank of China Limited stands as one of China’s “big four” state-owned banks. All four institutions made the Forbes 2014 “Global 2000” top ten, with Bank of China Limited clinching ninth place appreciation to profits of $25.5 billion, a market value of $124.2 billion, and assets totaling more than $2.2 trillion. Bank of China Limited boasts a worldwide staff of 305,675 and a global network that includes branches in China, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Dubai, Australia, Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Singapore, Luxembourg, and Taiwan. In 2013, and that year the company placed 11th on SNL Financial’s list of the world’s 100 biggest banks.
7. Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. It is estimated one of the Big Tech technology companies, alongside Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. In 2013 tech giant Apple Inc. came out on top in Forbes’ breakdown of “The World’s Most Valuable Brands,” with its brand worth listed at $104.3 billion. That year, the Reputation Institute ranked Apple as the seventh most prominent company in the world, and the Financial Times placed it first on its yearly FT Global 500 list with a market value of over $415.6 billion. In 2012 Global Finance magazine highlighted Apple among its “25 Most Influential Companies Over the Past 25 Years,” while Forbes dubbed it “the world’s most powerful brand.” CEO Tim Cook – who is also a Nike board member and has been represented by the pop culture media as the “world’s most powerful gay man” – succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011. Apple has 425 stores globally and is based out of its famous Apple Campus headquarters in Cupertino, California.
8. JPMorgan Chase & Co
In 2014 Forbes ranked global financial services and banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. fourth on its “The World’s Biggest Public Companies” list, with the firm’s assets topping $2.4 trillion and the multinational made profits of $17.3 billion, ratcheting up a market value of $229.7 billion. JPMorgan Chase is based in Manhattan, New York, and, outside the U.S., has a presence in South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, employing 260,000 people globally.
9. Toyota Motor Corporation
Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. The firm is based in Toyota (formerly Koromo) in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, and in 2012 it produced its 200 millionth automobile. In 2014 Toyota made Forbes’ “The World’s Biggest Public Companies” list, having raked in $255.6 billion in sales and $18.8 billion in profits throughout the preceding fiscal year; and in 2013 it was slotted in on the magazine’s most powerful brands list, with a brand value of $25.6 billion. Toyota also made the Reputation Institute’s 2014 breakdown of “The World’s Most Reputable Companies” and Global Finance’s “25 Most Influential Companies Over the Past 25 Years” list.
10. Wal-Mart
Based out of headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. dominates the largest multinational retail empire in the world. Once described as “the world’s most powerful company,” Wal-Mart had 2013-2014 sales totaling a massive $476.5 billion, netting $16 billion in profit and gaining an impressive market value of $247.9 billion. Each week, almost 265 million customers and members visit approximately 11,500 stores under 56 banners in 27 countries and eCommerce websites. With the fiscal year 2020 revenue of $524 billion, Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates worldwide.
11. Petro China
Based out of Beijing’s Dongcheng District, Chinese oil and gas powerhouse PetroChina chalked up a staggering $328.5 billion in sales during the 2013-2014 fiscal year, which translated into a net profit of $21.1 billion. Throw in the company’s $386.9 billion in assets, $202 billion market value, and more than 552,000 employees from Dubai to Houston – and it paints a compelling picture of immense global presence and power. In May 2014 PetroChina’s chairman Zhou Jiping – who is also the chairman of parent company the China National Petroleum Corporation – fronted a benchmark 30-year deal with Gazprom to supply China with more than “1 trillion cubic meters of gas,” which Gazprom says will be furnished “via the eastern route.” Gazprom additionally called it “the biggest investment project on a global scale.”
12. ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil Corporation is one of the world’s largest publicly purchased international oil and gas companies. Based in Irving, Texas, Exxon (formerly the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey) Mobil (formerly the Standard Oil Company of New York) is the largest of the so-called big oil “supermajors,” employing some 75,000 people globally. In 2012 The New Yorker called ExxonMobil – which it also describes as “the country’s biggest and most powerful oil company” – the “finance arm of the Republican Party.” This aside, in 2013 the firm made Forbes’ most powerful brands list, while its CEO, Rex Tillerson, placed 16th in the magazine’s rundown of “The World’s Most Powerful People 2013.” “Exxon remains the largest non-state oil and gas producer in the world, with operations on six continents,” the publication has explained. In 2016 the company was ranked ninth globally in the Forbes Global 2000 list.
13. Google Inc.
In 2013 Google ranked fifth on Forbes’ most powerful brands list, with a brand value of $47.3 billion, generating $43.5 billion in brand revenue. The tech superpower also shared top honors in the Reputation Institute’s 2014 rundown of “The World’s Most Reputable Companies” and made Forbes’ “Global 2000” list – with a market value of $382.5 billion. In 2014, discussing the world’s most influential tech companies on Bloomberg, highly respected businessman Martin Sorrell called Google “the strongest by some considerable distance.” He also noted that Google “has penetrated China in a very subtle way” through its Android smartphones. In fact, Stanford tech entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa said, “Google is everywhere”.
14. BP plc.
The British Petroleum Company plc, BP. is a multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In 2014 the long-established power company was ranked 17th on Forbes’ “Global 2000” government list, with a market value of $148.8 billion and profits of $23.6 billion. BP has operations in more than 80 countries and a worldwide staff of 83,900.
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15. BNP Paribas S.A.
BNP Paribas S.A. is a French international banking group, made Forbes’ “Global 2000,” with a market value of $98.6 billion and nearly $2.5 trillion in assets. It is the world’s 8th largest bank by total assets and currently operates with a presence in 72 countries. In 2011 it was featured on a list – compiled by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – of 147 powerful super-companies that “[run] the world.” BNP Paribas’ director and CEO, Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, was described by World of CEOs as “proactive and pragmatic,” with the website also noting that the French magazine Capital portrays the man as wanting to “know everything and control everything.”