by Rebecca Walker — March 7, 2011—For the 23rd time in 25 years, Herman Miller, Inc. was the highest ranking furniture manufacturer in a survey among the executives and board members of peer companies and independent industry analysts, as published in FORTUNE magazine’s annual “Most Admired” companies feature.
Taking 2nd overall in the expanded, 14 company category of “Home Equipment, Furnishings,” Herman Miller received the #1 ranking in five of the nine attributes surveyed; it was the only furniture company finishing in the top half of this category. The attributes where it finished #1 included Innovation, People Management, Use of Corporate Assets, Social Responsibility, and Quality of Products and Services.
To compile the list, FORTUNE enlisted the help of the Hay Group, which sorted the FORTUNE 1,000 and the top 400 non-U.S. companies into distinct industry lists, each containing at least the 15 largest companies. Other furniture companies in the 15 largest were Steelcase and HNI.
Representatives from a total of 673 companies from 32 countries were then surveyed, along with their respective industry analysts and other third party experts. The complete are included in the publication’s March 21, 2011 issue. For more information, see the magazine’s Web site.
