America's Most Admired Companies 2008

Top 20 Most Admired Companies

To create the top 20, Fortune and its survey partners at Hay Group asked the experts -- in this case, more than 3,700 people from dozens of industries -- to select the 10 companies they admire most. This year's winners all have strong records of innovation, leadership, and financial strength -- and their employees know it.

3 of 20

General Electric

Top 20 rank: 3
Rank in Electronics: 1

GE is no longer No. 1, but its reputation has still held up well, considering. The company gets half its profit from financial services but announced it was bailing out of subprime in July, before the worst trouble hit.

The resulting write-offs didn't dent earnings significantly. While its stock is stuck where it was six years ago, GE remains America's top shareholder-wealth creator, and it continues to deliver profit growth of 15% or more, remarkable for a $173 billion company. -Geoff Colvin

See how General Electric rates in 8 key areas

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Last updated March 03 2008: 2:10 PM ET