Chief Executive Magazine published its list of the 40 Best Companies for Leaders in 2013. The majority of companies which made it to the chart are based in North America. In addition, more than half of them are operating on an international level.
Chief Executive built its list taking into account five different business aspects – formal leadership process, depth of leadership, number of outside companies that recruit from the corporation, CEO’s commitment to the leadership development program, as well as the value performance of the shareholders. Also, the ranking includes only public companies that have a revenue of $1 billion or higher. Let’s now take a look at the top 5 Companies for Leaders in 2013.
P&G – The company managed to keep its first spot. P&G has a reputation of a leader maker. That is mainly due to the screening procedure of the company. P&G views more than 500,000 job candidates every year. However, it approves barely 1% of them. To create new leaders, the company assigns lots of responsibilities to its employees, but it only gives them meaningful tasks that can teach them new leader skills. Also, even the highest level professionals at P&G take full participation in activities like executive education programs that focus on college campuses. The assignments of almost all levels in the company are planned in great advance so that employees can focus in depth on their tasks.
General Electric – GE climbed with one position compared to the 2012 ranking. The international technology corporation is often used by other companies for talent recruitment. General Electric encourages and develops leadership in its employees through methods like on-the-job mentoring, early career leadership-development programs, stretch assignments and many more. In addition, the company has long traditions in leader development thanks to its annual training, talent-management and planning programs. Moreover, GE is aware of the constantly changing world in which we live today. Therefore, it teachers its leaders and leaders-to-be to learn how to adapt to new environments. Not long ago, General Electronic launched two brand new leadership programs called Program and Leadership Explorations and Leader in Residence.
IBM – The company fell with one spot this year. However, this does not change the fact that it has long years of experience in the leadership sphere. IBM is one of the few corporations that still appreciates the imagination and innovation in its employees. The company’s leadership program focuses on a number of key points among which are building mutual trust, embracing challenges and communicating for impact. IBM’s program is aimed at professionals on various levels who show high potential in their work. In addition, it further develops the leadership qualities of its current company leaders.
Dow Chemical – Dow has many years of experience in international development assignments, as well as cross-functional and cross-business movement within the company. Its leadership programs are mainly rotational and they cover different disciplines. Some of its most famous and successful leadership programs are Dow’s Business Services Rotational Program, Finance Development Program for Accountants, MBA/General Management Program and the Human Resources Rotational Development Program.
Verizon Communications – Verizon makes an impressive jump in 2013. Last year the company was not even in the top ten of the list, but today it is already fifth. Verizon believes that a leadership has to do mainly with a company’s customers. Verizon Communications’ CEO Lowell McAdams acts like a true example of a leader to the company’s other employees. McAdams actively participate in the leadership development programs and initiatives of the company. In addition, he stays accessible to all the levels in the Verizon and reviews the top talents.
A number of companies on this year’s Best Companies for Leaders list have made big jumps. Monsanto headed by CEO Hugh Grant, for example, has improved its ranking position with nearly 40 spots and is now 11th. The Cooper Companies jumped from the 21st place to the 14th, while Barnes Groups moved 8 spots up to and is now 22nd.
What is really surprising is that a large percentage of the companies in the top 40 are new entries.
