Quality of admirable company

Shahab Sabahi
Energy and Environment for Development – Policy Analysis Research Group

What company is the most admirable company?

Steadily creating value accounts the most important characteristic of an admirable company. By definition value is attributed to that which preserves more quality life. Now a question rises: “What features account for steadily creating values?” 

Directors and analysts count the common attributes for the most admirable companies as the quality of management / products / services, innovativeness, long term investment value, financial soundness, ability to develop people, responsibility to the community and the environment, wise use of corporate assets. (D. Anginer, University of Michigan 2008)

I believe that we can categorize these attributes in a simple way to describe better an admirable company.

Governance quality shows the most important attribute of an admired company. It is a continually evolving process. It enables a company to adapt itself when the business forces change. It brings a company quality of leadership and reputation which are the important assets that company possesses 

Formulating stable strategy comes the second. It shows the ability for the long run value creations in a company. By stable strategy, I mean a strategy that wisely elaborated based on resources capacity constraints and interests of companies with envisaging the development opportunities.

Stable strategy may require long term investments in human, knowledge and capital. Stable strategy entails effective use of company’s resources. Stable strategy leads companies to create more value options.

Integrity is an important corporate ideal. By integrity, I mean honesty, honour, and reliability. It is the firm foundation of a corporation. It is important to all stakeholders including employees, suppliers, customers, shareholders and the community. Integrity is a reflection of the professionalism and the responsible attitude of its management and employees. By corporate-wide committing to do the right values, every element of the corporation team has the freedom and of course responsibility in return to deal with each other. Integrity creates trust among stakeholders that provides a code of ethics by which the organization’s performance is consistently checked and improved over time. Integrity leads to sound collaboration, joint effort, and solidarity

Besides the fact that admired company should be a profit-making company, it also should speak to the concerns of communities. Thus in my opinion governance quality, stable strategy, integrity and profit making are the most characteristics of an admired company.