DuPont Among Most Admired Companies

Yesterday, FORTUNE magazine named DuPont among the 50 “Most Admired Companies” in the world. FORTUNE cited the company for its innovation, financial soundness, people management and social responsibility.

Overall, DuPont moved up six spots from last year to No. 43 in 2011. DuPont was also No. 2 on the list for chemical companies.

FORTUNE’s “Most Admired Companies” list is widely considered one of the leading gauges of corporate reputations. According to the magazine, this year’s list included some surprises, saying “the recession changed global opinion thoroughly.” This new class of admired companies has shown that “through good times and bad, they dared to differ from how most competitors were behaving.”

FORTUNE surveyed 1,400 companies around the world including the FORTUNE 1,000, non-U.S. companies in FORTUNE’s Global 500 database with revenue of more than $10 billion and the top foreign companies operating in the U.S.

For the 50 most admired companies overall, FORTUNE’s survey asked businesspeople to vote for the companies that they admired most, from any industry.