Marketing and all things related

Fortune has released a new list called the Top Companies for Leaders.  Fortune offers its picks for the top companies for leaders globally as well as in North America, China, Europe, India, Asia-Pacific, Australia/New Zealand and Latin America. 

I have to admit, the results are very surprising to me, but as I'll discuss later in this post, the methodology used to select the companies on the list sheds some light on why the results might seem a bit unusual. 

Here are the global top 10 companies for leaders according to Fortune as well as the location of each country's headquarters:

1. General Electric: United States
2. Procter & Gamble: United States
3. Nokia: Finland
4. Hindustan, Unilever: India
5. Capital One Financial: United States
6. General Mills: United States
7. McKinsey: No headquarters
8. IBM: United States
9. BBVA: Spain
10. Infosys Technologies: India

What do you think?  Any surprises?  I was actually surprised to see Capital One on the list.  Having come from the financial industry in my prior corporate career, I never had a very positive view of Capital One.

Here is Fortune's list of the top 10 companies for leaders with headquarters locations in North America:

1. General Electric
2. Capital One Financial
3. General Mills
4. McKinsey & Company
5. IBM
6. Medtronic
7. Washington Group International
8. Eli Lilly and Company
9. Avery Dennison Corporation

You can read the methodology behind the process used by Fortune to pick the companies on the list here.  Based on the methodology (which began with surveys to human resources executives and later focused on interviews with senior executives from each company that made the finals), I don't think I'll put much value in this survey.  From the methodology, it sounds like the winners were probably just better at spinning corporate rhetoric.  Am I just being cynical?

Playing devil's advocate, I'll pose this question: while these may be the best companies for leaders, what are they like to work for as a regular employee?  And another question, just because these are the best companies for leaders, are these also the best companies to invest in?  What do you think?