Corporate ethics take center stage. (The Top 50).EVEN THE MOST CASUAL WALL STREET observer is familiar with such infamous in·fa·mous adj. 1. Having an exceedingly bad reputation; notorious. 2. Causing or deserving infamy; heinous: an infamous deed. 3. Law a. names as Enron, WorldCom and Tyco International For the unrelated division of Mattel, see . Tyco International Ltd. NYSE: TYC is a diversified manufacturing conglomerate incorporated in Bermuda, with United States operational headquarters in New Jersey. . All of them were in the news during 2002 due to their corporate misconduct MISCONDUCT. Unlawful behaviour by a person entrusted in any degree: with the administration of justice, by which the rights of the parties and the justice of the, case may have been affected. 2. . The misdeeds of a few had many CEOs insisting that their companies were not capable of such wrong-doings. As a result, many of the publicly-traded companies in this year's edition of The Top 50 made it a point in their annual reports to alert shareholders about their ethics ethics, in philosophy, the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and duties that a and high value systems. Noble stuff, indeed, but really--you wouldn't expect companies to come out and admit that their firms are run by a bunch of thieves and crooks, would you? No sir, the folks who run the firms in our Top 50 are certainly an ethical lot. Yet, more than a few of them are not above playing the restructuring game--taking significant one-time charges on an almost yearly basis. There's nothing legally wrong with that, of course, but these one-time charges have a way of becoming annual affairs, making the ledger The principal book of accounts of a business enterprise in which all the daily transactions are entered under appropriate headings to reflect the debits and credits of each account. look better than it really is. But The Top 50 isn't about accounting practices--it's a review and forecast of the events that have had and are having an impact on the biggest U.S. companies in the household and personal products industry. For example, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Definition Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is the first emergent and highly transmissible viral disease to appear during the twenty-first century. (SARS) has been in the news for much of 2003 and nearly every player in the industrial and institutional cleaning market has come out with a position statement on the crisis, even as health officials declare that the worst of the epidemic is over. Meanwhile, nearly every Top 50 company has been forced to conduct business in a slow-growth U.S. economy as well as in a global marketplace that remains unsettled following the war with Iraq, acts of terrorism and economic weakness in several regions. Despite all of these external factors, the companies that make up our Top 50 have managed to introduce new products, enter new markets and streamline operations in an attempt to boost profitability. Once again, P&G is the No. 1 company in The Top 50, while Colgate-Palmolive is a distant No. 2. Rounding out the top 10 are S.C. Johnson, Estee Lauder, Avon Products Avon Products, Inc. NYSE: AVP is a US cosmetics, perfume and toy seller with markets in over 135 countries across the world and sales of $8.1 billion worldwide as of 2005. , Ecolab, Clorox, Limited Brands, Alberto-Culver and Access Business Group. We hope you enjoy this edition of The Top 50. As always, we welcome your comments on our ranking, as well as anything else that appears in Happi. Be sure to read the August issue of our magazine, which will include The International Top 30, our annual look at the largest manufacturers of household and personal products with corporate headquarters outside the U.S. TOM BRANNA EDITORIAL DIRECTOR tomb tomb, vault or chamber constructed either partly or entirely above ground as a place of interment. Although it is often used as a synonym for grave, the word is derived from the Greek tymbos [burial ground]. @rodpub.com |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion