F Ford Motor Company

Only two automotive or vehicle companies scored in the top 50 of the Management Top 250 ranking: Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.

Ford, at No. 30, was lifted by its performance on employee engagement and development, which is measured by third-party metrics that assess things like employees' views on their jobs and employers, and employees' self-reported pay versus that of their peers at other companies. Ford's performance on the employee metrics was in the top 5% of all the companies studied, across industries.

The Management Top 250, compiled by the Drucker Institute and first published in December, uses the ideals and teachings of the late business guru Peter Drucker to analyze and compare the performance of major U.S. companies. Mr. Drucker influenced generations of business leaders with his writings, including a regular column in The Wall Street Journal.

The overall ranking is based on performance in five areas. In addition to employee engagement and development, they are: customer satisfaction, innovation, social responsibility and financial strength.

Of 11 automotive and vehicle companies in the Management Top 250, none matched Ford's performance on the employee measure. In fact, four had employee scores in the bottom 20% of so of all companies studied.

GM, at No. 40 overall, in a tie with health-care company Eli Lilly & Co., had its best scores in innovation and financial strength. Innovation scores are based on factors such as research-and-development spending and statistics on patents, while financial strength is based on metrics such as earnings and return on assets.

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

-- Dave Pettit ( @pettitd)

Write to Dave Pettit at dave.pettit@wsj.com.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 14, 2018 10:05 ET (14:05 GMT)

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