Cummins gets high marks in five recent independent ratings
Cummins is ranked No. 17 in Newsweek magazine’s first rating of America’s Most Responsible Companies. It was the top company in its category – automotive and components.
The Newsweek list, released earlier this week, is one of five recent evaluations by outside groups praising the company, its approach to sustainability or its leadership and management.
“Companies, we all know, need to make a profit to prosper and survive,” said Nancy Cooper, Global Editor in Chief at Newsweek. “Making a buck, after all, is important to investors, employees and vendors. But over the years, executives have come to realize that they need to do much more. That is, by giving back to the communities they operate in and standing up as good neighbors and citizens.”
Newsweek partnered with Statista Inc., a leading provider of global market and consumer data, to evaluate publicly available information from sources such as sustainability and corporate citizenship reports. The key indicators included in the ranking focused on performance in the areas of the environment, social initiatives and corporate governance. The partners also conducted an independent survey asking U.S. citizens about their perception of companies’ activities related to corporate social responsibility.
Cummins received an overall score of 83.8 in the 2020 ranking, 83.6 on the environment, 80.2 on social and 87.6 on governance. The top three in the review of 2,000 public companies were HP (94.4), Cisco (91.2) and Dell (90.3).
Cummins took several innovative steps in 2019 starting with its support for Cummins Powers Women, an effort working with expert nonprofit groups to advance women and girls around-the-world. More recently, the company announced its PLANET 2050 strategy to do its part to address climate change and other environmental issues.
In addition, the company has made major investments in electrified power and fuel cells as part of Cummins’ effort to offer customers a broad portfolio of solutions to meet their power needs.
TWO OTHER RATINGS OF NOTE
Cummins this week was also ranked No. 48 in Investor's Business Daily's 50 Best ESG Companies. The list includes top performers in the environment, social and governance areas, "reflecting broad strength in fundamental and technical areas linked to price performance." Investor's Business Daily looked at companies with ESG (environment, social, governance) ratings of AAA or AA from MSCI ESG Research as of Sept. 11, 2019.
In a rating released last month, the company ranked No. 98 on the 2020 list of America’s Most JUST Companies produced by Forbes magazine and JUST Capital. The list honors 100 U.S. corporations, ranking companies on issues such as fair pay, ethical leadership, good benefits, and work-life balance, in addition to financial performance.
The issues in the rankings and their weights are determined by a polling of the American public to determine what it believes are the most important attributes of a just company.
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT RANKINGS
Meanwhile, Cummins also received strong reviews in two management and leadership ratings. The company was ranked No. 88 in the Wall Street Journal and Drucker Institute's Management Top 250 released late last month. The partnership rates America's largest publicly traded companies on the principles of Peter Drucker, the late professor, author and longtime Wall Street Journal columnist.
And Cummins Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger was No. 12 on Fortune magazine’s Businessperson of the Year 2019 list announced last month. The magazine looks at 10 financial factors “ranging from total return to shareholders to return on capital.
“Then we search for the standouts. The leaders who tackled audacious goals, overcame impossible odds, found creative solutions.”
The magazine selected 20 CEOs to profile, praising Linebarger for his support of free trade.
“Linebarger has spent a large part of the past two years warning what will happen if U.S. trade with Asia doesn't stay open,” Fortune said.
