Top 10 most hated, and least admired US companies for 2010

I have been reading many survey results about America's least admired companies for 2010. Results have been published in the internet and in business magazines. These surveys tell which company in the US have been voted for this year's worst companies. Please note that these surveys are NOT about the worst companies to work for, but how these companies were evaluated based on the criteria of judging which I will discuss it shortly.

You can find some of these reports from here and here and here and here.


The Results


To give you an idea, here's the survey results that have been published from Fortune, Huffington Post, WallSt, and Consumerist. I decided to put them how they rank those companies and let's see how they fare with one another.

Rank       Fortune                     Huffington WallST Consumerist
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1              Dillard's                        Freddi Mac           AIG                   Comcast
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2               PDVA                       AIG                    United Airlines     Ticketmaster
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3              Nortel Networks          Fannie Mae           Level 3               Cash4Gold
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4              Sears Holdings            Citigroup              Hertz               Bank of America
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5              Citigroup                    Goldman Sachs      Citigroup
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6              United Airlines            Chrysler                K-Mart
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7              Boyd Gaming             General Motors       Blackwater
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8              Penn National            JP Morgan             Dell
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9               Dollar Stores              Bank of America      Abercrombie
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10             Health Net                Delta                      Chrysler
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How I read the data

From the list, there are at least 6 companies that have been independently and repeatedly voted more than once. These companies didn't appear among the top 3 list. Comcast which voted by Consumerist as the Worst Company appeared only once:

Citigroup                          3 times
United Airlines                2 times
AIG                                 2 times
Bank of America              2 times
Chrysler                           2 times
Sears Holdings/K-Mart   2 times

As you have noticed, most of the survey results do not agree but it doesn't mean it's not credible. Surveys were taken obviously on different vantage points and different audience as well. The differences outweighed similarities. Only Citigroup was voted three times from the first 3 survey results but only appeared on the 4th or 5th spot. United Airlines, AIG, Bank of America, Chrysler, and K-Mart which is part of Sears Holdings, where voted twice by the four survey reports.

Another difference was how the surveys titled their respective reports. For instance, Fortune Magazine used the term, "Least Admired" while WallSt used the term "Most Hated". The former, although it may carry the same effect or gravity, was least offensive while the latter was loaded with emotional overtones. Huffington Post report used the term, "Least Liked" which is equally passive for a description, while Consumerist used the superlative word "Worst" to describe its number one pick.


Criteria for Judging

How are these companies were chosen in the first place? Criteria for judging in itself, is another issue. In fact, these surveys approach the situation differently. Although they may differ slightly with respect to criteria for judging, most surveys apply using the following standard rules:

1. Customer satisfaction level. These level figures are being analized from different sources such as but not limite to Consumer Reports, JD Power, MSN/Zogby Poll, Vanno, etc.  For instance, AIG has a satisfactory level as follows: Extremely Satisfied: 19%, Very Satisfied: 10%, Somewhat Satisfied: 10% , Unsatisfied: 10%, Very Unsatisfied: 51%.
2. Employee Impressions. It simply answer the question, "How do you rate the company."
3. Investment value over a specific period. Another criterion that was put into consideration is the return to shareholders over a one-year period up to five-year period and how data are being compared to the broad market. It answer the question, "How much ROI over a certain period."
4. How taxpayers view the company. For instance, Bank of America have received USD$45 Billion bailouts being doled out using taxpayers' money for the last few years. 
5. Brand value. Brand valuation changes mainly from Corebrands, Interbrand, Brand Z.
6. Executive response. It is important to note that Hays Group, the third party firm that conduct surveys for Fortune have slightly different set of criteria as well. For instance, the company also asked executives, directors, and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on nine criteria, from investment value to social responsibility.

How reliable are they?

When Fortune conducted its own survey using a third party firm, Hays Group, the company admitted having not covered all industries that should have been included this year. This alone could affect the over all result of its survey. Do surveys must be free from personal biases in order to be treated as having objective values? The truth of the matter is, survey questions can be biased depending on how criteria are made and how questions are being asked. Survey results are essentially the product of collective personal experiences from people or customers who have both direct and indirect contact with companies' products, services, and management. Sometimes, the reliability of a survey is measured by the credibility of the surveying firm. The more reliable the survey firm is, the more credible is the report. Or is it?

So what do you think, do the surveys represent and reflect the exact status of those companies, or would you rather have and publish your own list? You be the judge.