HD Home Depot Inc

Walmart Inc. is ranked highest among retail and wholesale companies in the Management Top 250, while Home Depot Inc. is among the biggest gainers over time.

Walmart is highest in overall management effectiveness, ranked No. 39. It was lifted by a strong performance in the innovation measures, for which it scored in the top 1% of all companies analyzed. Metrics in that category include patents and spending on research and development.

Walmart was weakest in measures of employee engagement and development, scoring in the bottom 15% of companies analyzed. That category tracks things including employees' views on their jobs.

The Management Top 250, compiled by the Drucker Institute, is based on five categories that reflect the core principles of the late business guru Peter Drucker. Mr. Drucker influenced generations of business leaders with his writings, including a regular column in The Wall Street Journal.

Home Depot, No. 52 overall, is among the biggest gainers in the rankings over the past six years. Although the ranking was first published in December, Drucker Institute has calculated scores back through 2012. Home Depot has benefited in particular from an increase in measures of financial strength.

See more analysis and the full list of the 2017 Management Top 250 at wsj.com/managementtop250. Plus, read about how technology, telecommunications, media and entertainment, financial, energy, utilities, automotive, consumer products, health care and life sciences, consumer and business services, transportation and logistics, industrial goods and real estate and construction companies rank.

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

September 13, 2018 13:00 ET (17:00 GMT)

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