S e c o n d e d I t I o n 1 Reading for the Real World 1

financial statements
. A second 
type of performance measurement used in ratings is companies’ market 
performance. This includes their market value, 
market share
, and number of 
employees. Some rankings use only financial performance or market 
performance as the basis for their rating of companies, such as the 
Wall Street 
Journal
. However, some ratings will use both measurements, such as the 
Fortune 500 and 
Business Week’s
ratings.
The other major category of ratings relies on the results of surveys sent to 
16
indications --- a sign; a criterion
19
financial statement --- a record of how money comes in and goes out
21
market share --- percentage of the market controlled by a company
Track 47

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executives, company employees and 
analysts
by the publishers. The publishers’ 
surveys present detailed statistical and analytical data on the companies that 
they rank. For example, in order to rank America’s most admired companies, 
Fortune
magazine started with the ten largest companies by 
revenue
in sixty-
six industries. They surveyed 10,000 executives, directors, and 
securities 
analysts 
related to those companies, who then rated the various companies in 
their own industries based on certain criteria. For the most admired companies, 
the survey 
respondents
were asked to select the ten companies in any industry 
that they admired most. Another popular example is 
Fortune’s
Best Companies 
to Work For rating. To determine which companies make it on the list and 
where they should rank, the publisher sends surveys to employees of all the 
Fortune 1,000 companies, plus the 200 largest 
privately held
US companies. 
Among all the ratings, the most trusted and well-known rankings are done 
by 
Fortune
and 
Business Week
magazines. 
Fortune
magazine publishes many 
company rankings every year, including the Fortune 500, Fortune 100 Best 
Companies to Work For, Global Most Admired Companies and Fortune Global 
500. In 
Fortune
magazine’s Global 500, a few of the companies that regularly 
show up on the list include General Electric, Exxon Mobile, IBM, and Bank of 
America. This list’s ranking is based 
primarily
on financial performance. By 
comparison, the Fortune Global Most Admired rankings are based on executives’ 
surveys. Companies regularly appearing on this list year after year include 
General Electric, Wal-Mart, and Microsoft. Finally turning to 
Business Week
magazine’s Global 1,000 ratings, one will find such companies as General 
Electric, Exxon Mobile, and Wal-Mart