You already know that Apple is America’s most admired company. It should come as little surprise to you, therefore, that Apple laid claim to the honorary title of being America’s most excellent brand yesterday.
Conducted by the City Business Journals Network (CBJN), these awards sought to award those companies that are “easy to do business with”, an “industry leader”, “forward thinking”, “growing in popularity”, etc.. We’re not sure how Apple rated in that first criterion—if Steve Jobs’s reputation in the area is anything to go by, we’re guessing not too well.
When all was said and done, however, Apple emerged as the victor in the technology category, along with UPS in business services, MasterCard in Financial/Insurance, Staples in retail, Verizon in telecommunications, and Southwest in travel. And the overall grand prize winning company was, you guessed it, Apple Inc.
These companies were chosen by a group of more than 1,700 business owners and managers from among a pool of more than two hundred companies vying for the award in each of the respective categories.
Speaking of categories, we should have a “been there, done that” for this kind of stuff.
Southwest? The same airline being fined by the FAA for operating thousands of flights without necessary safety inspections? I'm sorry, but Southwest is the new ValueJet (sorry, AirTran). How many of these 1700 business owners and managers fly Southwest?