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Infy, Tata Group lead corporate reputation sweepstakes

TNS India’s second Corporate Reputation Strength rankings put Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Hindustan Unilever as the most reputed Indian companies

TNS India, a global market insight and information group, conducts a study called TRIM Corporate Reputation Manager, which is a temperature check on the social standing of India’s top companies.

In its second chapter (the previous survey was in 2004), it includes 70 leading companies across nine diverse sectors. It was conducted between January and March 2007, with fieldwork audited and certified by BIS. Two groups were covered by this study – stakeholder groups and opinion leaders. The former included the financial community and senior business managers in the industry, and the latter took into consideration the views of senior bureaucrats, academicians and media personalities.

Infy, Tata Group lead corporate reputation sweepstakes
The five companies that lead the rankings in Corporate Reputation Strength (CRS) are Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Hindustan Unilever.

Thanks to multiple rankings, a total of 23 companies have featured among the top 10 companies in the study. Infosys Technologies leads with an overall score of 91, followed by Tata Consultancy with 89. Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Hindustan Unilever hold the third position with a score of 88; Maruti Udyog and Tata Tea tie for fourth place (86), and Reliance Industries and Indian Oil Corporation are jointly ranked fifth (85).

While all the top five companies figured in the rankings across all the stakeholder groups, there are clear differences between the finance segment, business managers and the opinion leader segment.

To begin with, the final overall ranking largely mirrors that of business managers. CEOs feel that Infosys has clearly reached the pinnacle in reputation, as they give a cent per cent score to the Bangalore-based IT major. TCS also gets very high marks from business managers, with a score of 96. Interesting, however, is the rating of Tata Power, which ranks tall at No. 5 in its category, but lags behind in the overall ranking at seventh position, with a score of 83.

The financial community gives top ranking to Tata Steel, followed by ICICI Bank and Intel. Other companies to make it among the top five in this segment include Wipro, Tata Motors and Tata Power.

Tata Tea makes it to the top for opinion leaders with a score of 92. Infosys follows with 91. Public sector firm Steel Authority of India (SAIL) holds the third position (90), which is not mirrored in the overall ranking as it stands at the seventh position with a score of 83. Asian Paints, which is rated fourth by this segment (89), holds the eighth position in the overall ranking with a score of 82.

According to the previous survey conducted in 2004, Infosys was in third position with an overall score of 83. Tata Steel, which held the first slot in 2004 with a score of 84 (overall), has descended to the third position this year. Tata Motors, which was fifth in the overall ranking in the previous survey, has climbed one step up the ladder. And Hero Honda, which was ranked No. 5 in 2004, has slid five places to No. 10 now.

The study broadly reveals that the IT sector leads in terms of contributing to India’s progress, followed by FMCG and petroleum. The automobile and finance sectors follow close behind.

The survey is conducted across nine major sectors – automobile, finance, petroleum, IT, pharmaceuticals, telecom, FMCG, consumer durables, and engineering and infrastructure. It measures corporate reputation on 10 broad dimensions – corporate governance, social responsibility, corporate visibility and image, market leadership, financial performance, quality of management, quality and reliability of products and services, customer orientation, HR practices and emotional appeal.

First, a qualitative analysis is conducted for validating the most relevant set of attributes and dimensions, followed by an intensive quantitative phase covering 1,725 respondents spread across India.

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