Industry & Trade

World's Least Admired Retail Industry Companies on 2009 Fortune Magazine List

Worst Rankings for Key Attributes May Indicate Future Failure for Top Retailers

See More About:

If there are most admired companies in the world, then there must also be least admired companies in the world. As an addition to its 2009 “World’s Most Admired Companies” list this year, Fortune Magazine also identified the companies that received the lowest ratings from industry experts and analysts in nine categories. These nine categories are the “key attributes of reputation” that the magazine has chosen to guide them in the compilation of their annual list.

One retail company that appears frequently on the least admired list is the recently liquidated Circuit City. This is not surprising since the retail community didn’t hold the electronics retailer in high esteem in its last year in business. Somewhat surprising, though, are the retail industry representatives which appear frequently alongside Circuit City on these “least admired” lists. If the reputation attributes of Fortune Magazine and the opinions of analysts and industry experts about those attributes are reliable indicators of success, then Dillard’s, Sears, and Family Dollar are three U.S. retailers that are in serious jeopardy.

What follows is the list of retailers that were designated as the “least admired” in 2009:

Least Admired for Innovation: