WHAT MAKES A TOP COMPANY?
Though these results involved a lot
of number crunching, some surprises
emerged from the spreadsheets. Consider the diversity of our top three—
Apple, Seagate Technology, and
Applied Materials Inc. Reading
between the columns, however, reveals
five key trends.
First, at some point in the product-development and/or sales cycle, our top
companies are involved in an area of
high consumer demand. It could be
semiconductors in general, flat-panel
displays, laptops, iPods, portable hard
drives, or even desktop hard drives.
Consumers want more storage capacity,
portability, and mobility in their audio,
video, data, and computing.
Second, product design and development and improvement are essential.
This is reflected by patent applications
for new technology and processes, R&D
spending increases, and the influence of
their electronic equipment design activities in boosting their semiconductor purchasing year over year.
Third, companies at the top of the
list manage their gross margins well
through improved product mix and
pricing where possible. They keep an
eye on their operating expenses to keep
them in line with their sales increases,
so they don't flush their hard-earned
sales increases away with out-of-control expenses.
Fourth, they manage their balance
sheets well. They don't have excessive
debt, and they do have strong equity
positions. They also make good strategic decisions in terms of acquisitions
and how they finance them. If they
think their stock is undervalued, they
buy some back to try and push the value up. If their stock has had a nice run, much like Seagate's, they issue more to
finance an acquisition such as Maxtor,
rather than going to the banks and
increasing their debt.
Finally, they add human resources
when supported by sales growth.
They're aware of their stock prices, but
they don't run their businesses with the
sole purpose of increasing their stock's
price in the short term. Instead, they
think long term.
WORKING FOR THE BEST
So, all
of this shrewd management and financial health may make for a long and
lucrative career. But will it be satisfying? We took a closer look at employees from the top 25 companies on the
list and compared them to the average Electronic Design reader, as surmised
by our 2006 survey results.
These companies offer more room
for career growth, as their employees
see an average of two to three times
more promotions than the average Electronic Design reader. Yet pressure
is mounting for engineers at these companies, as they more frequently deal
with shrinking product cycles than our
typical reader.
Also, these engineers are somewhat
more concerned with losing their jobs
to outsourcing than our readers. Still,
they remain more positive about their
organizations and say they are more
focused on employee retention, compared to a couple of years ago.
And, finally, engineers in the top
group feel better about being adequately compensated for the work they do,
with 67% feeling they are fairly compensated versus 60% of the overall Electronic Design readership.
Company Profiles
Electronic Design's staff compiled individual profiles of the top companies on the list, as well as other key names in the industry. To see
these profiles, go to the appropriate Drill Deeper numbers:
|
A Closer Look
This report really put our spreadsheeting
skills to the test, as we juggled employee
totals, stock prices, profits, R&D budgets,
and a host of other vitals to finalize the list.
To see the raw numbers in each category for
each company, go to Drill Deeper 15443. For more on
how each company ranked within each of
our criteria, go to Drill Deeper 15444. And
for a more detailed analysis of specific company data, see Drill Deeper 15445. |