AT&T Outranks Telecom Rivals in Management Top 250

AT&T Inc. ranked highest among the big U.S. telecommunications companies in the Management Top 250 ranking, lifted in large part by a strong showing on innovation. It was No. 35 overall on the list.

The company, which last week closed its $81 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc., scored in the top 1% of all companies analyzed for the ranking for innovation. It also was in the top 3% of companies in financial strength, another ranking category, but it was in the bottom 30% when it comes to customer satisfaction, a third category.

Time Warner, a big media content producer, fell outside the top 250, at No. 283 among 693 U.S. and Canadian companies included in the research that was conducted to develop the ranking.

The Management Top 250, first published in December, was developed by the Drucker Institute to analyze and compare the management performance of major U.S. companies. The overall ranking is composed of five categories based on the ideals of the late business guru Peter Drucker, who influenced generations of business leaders with his writings, including a regular column in The Wall Street Journal.

The innovation category is based on factors such as research-and-development spending and statistics on patents, while financial strength uses metrics such as earnings and return on assets. Customer satisfaction tracks things like satisfaction with products and services, customer loyalty and how well customer expectations are met.

The other categories within the overall ranking are social responsibility and employee engagement and development.

Verizon Communications Inc. was second among telecommunications companies, ranked No. 48 overall. Among the three big telecom companies in the Management Top 250, it scored highest on financial strength. T-Mobile US Inc. was ranked No. 106 overall.

Sprint Corp., which has agreed to merge with T-Mobile, didn't make the Management Top 250, coming in at No. 322 among all companies studied by the Drucker Institute. Sprint was outscored by its merger partner in every category except innovation.

See more analysis and the full list of the 2017 Management Top 250 at wsj.com/managementtop250. Plus, read about how technology, financial and automotive companies rank. The full methodology is available at on.wsj.com/top-250-methodology.

-- Dave Pettit ( @pettitd)

Write to Dave Pettit at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 21, 2018 11:07 ET (15:07 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.