With phrases like “It`s the uber of [insert activity here]” permeating our colloquial language, there`s no denying the company`s influence. In 2011, New Scientist published an overview of 147 interconnected supercompanies titled “The Capitalist Network That Rules the World,” with Allianz SE ranked 28th. The Munich-based German financial services provider has been described as “the world`s largest insurance company” and employs 147,627 people worldwide. In 2013, the financial giant broke down Forbes of the most powerful brands, and the following year it ranked 27th on the magazine`s “Global 2000″ list, with a market value of $77.2 billion. The world-famous local football team Bayern Munich even plays its matches in the legendary Allianz Arena. CEO Michael Diekmann took over the company in 2003 and managed distressed assets within a year through a series of strategic decisions. In 2014, Chinese banking giant Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) ranked third on Forbes` Global 2000 list of “the world`s biggest, most powerful and valuable companies.” That year, the company made profits of $27 billion and its assets were estimated at $2.405 trillion. With subsidiaries in the UK and Hong Kong and New York offices in Sydney, ABC employs 478,980 people, with operations concentrated at its headquarters in Beijing`s Dongcheng district. The company went public in 2010 and still generated a record $22.1 billion.
In 2012, ABC installed a new president, Jiang Chaoliang, who had made a name for himself working for the China Bank of Communications and the China Development Bank. Chevron, the second-largest oil company in the U.S., has continued to expand its reach over the past year with successful exploration activities in Australia, the Gulf of Mexico and Canada. The value of a company`s shares can change quickly. Apple itself has experienced several setbacks. Microsoft has dethroned it as the world`s most valuable company several times, most recently in October last year (and Amazon beat both for the top spot in January 2019), but its dominance didn`t last long. On January 3, 2022, Apple became the first company to surpass the $3 trillion market value. Again, this didn`t last long, but Apple has been ahead of its big rival ever since. Moscow-based Sberbank of Russia owned by the Central Bank of Russia is the largest bank in Eastern Europe. In 2014, the banking and financial services company was included in Forbes` “Global 2000,” with the publication reporting a market value of $51.5 billion and assets of $554.2 billion. That same year, the company was also named to Fortune`s “Global 500″ with sales of more than $54.778 billion. In addition, in 2014, Sberbank was ranked number one in Central and Eastern Europe by The Banker magazine, where it employs 277 branches and 306,123 employees.
Sberbank`s President and CEO, German Gref, was previously Russia`s Minister of Economic Development and Trade. In May 2014, he joined the board of directors of Yandex, Russia`s largest Internet company. Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G), headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the world`s largest multinational consumer goods company, serving approximately 4.8 billion people worldwide. In 2014, P&G ranked 31st on the Fortune 500 with revenue of $84.167 billion, and the magazine said CEO Alan G. Lafley is still committed to cutting costs and improving productivity. Lafley, who completed his MBA at Harvard Business School, breathed new life into the company by evolving its “Consumer is Boss” mantra while focusing on existing megabrands and adding new ones. P&G describes its portfolio as “trusted, high-quality, and leading brands,” and in 2014, the Reputation Institute included the company in its list of the world`s most prestigious companies. P&G operates in approximately 70 countries, employs 121,000 people worldwide and has a market value of $217.8 billion. GM, one of the world`s largest automakers, has been in business for more than a century.
Despite a year of litigation that recently ended in a multimillion-dollar settlement, GM has increased sales of popular brands Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. Starbucks, the fifth most admired brand in the world according to Fortune, is more ubiquitous than ever. With 22,000 retail stores in 66 countries, the Seattle-based coffee retailer spent most of 2014 going green and launching plans to send its employees to college and hire more military families and U.S. veterans. It was immediately obvious that a company`s power is inextricably linked to important quantitative financial parameters such as turnover, net profit, wealth and market value. Influence – in its various forms – is also a major factor, whether it is a political impact, an impact on the market or consumer reputation. In addition, in relation to public perception, there is the value and influence of the brand itself. To expand its reach, Yahoo partnered with Mozilla in late 2014 to use Yahoo.com as the default homepage for Firefox in the US. According to the analysis site Alexa.com, Yahoo is the fifth most popular website in the world and has a Klout score of 98 – which is not surprising for an internet giant. Headquartered in no less than 170 countries, IBM, a technology and consulting company based in New York State, is one of the world`s best-known brands. In 2013, Forbes ranked fourth on its list of “World`s Most Valuable Brands” with a brand value of $50.7 billion. In 2012, it was also included in Global Finance magazine`s list of “25 Most Influential Companies of the Last 25 Years”.
IBM employs more than 430,000 people worldwide and generated $16.5 billion in profit from 2013 to 2014. In 2013, Time described IBM as “an icon of American technological innovation.” In addition, the company reached a landmark agreement with Apple Inc. the following year to co-develop apps and pre-install Apple software on its computers. Fortune and Forbes named current IBM CEO Virginia “Ganni” Rometty as one of the most powerful businesswomen. In 2014, French multinational banking BNP Paribas made the “Global 2000″ of Forbes with a market value of $ 98.6 billion and assets of nearly $ 2.5 trillion. BNP Paribas is headquartered in Paris, has another global headquarters in London, employs 184,545 people and operates in 75 countries around the world. In 2011, it was on a list of 147 powerful supercorporations that “run the world.” Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, chief executive of BNP Paribas, was described by the World of CEO as “proactive and pragmatic”, with the site also noting that Français magazine Capital portrayed the man as wanting to “know and control everything”. In 2014, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, regained his place at the top of Forbes` list of “world`s billionaires” due to a staggering net worth of about $76 billion.
