Admirable Qualities

摘要

First-time BMAC winner Diageo is up eight places this year. Walsh's consistent and painstaking development of a portfolio of leading brands -Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker, to name but three - has created a profitable drinks empire that operates with the dynamism and marketing savvy of an FMCG firm. It's also a leader in the responsible drinking campaign. Diageo's combination of brand strength and light-on-its-feet responses should see the firm fare better than most in the downturn. A vintage performance from the almost 200-year-old precious-metal specialist. It was voted top in its chemicals sector in all but one of the nine judging criteria, to achieve its highest-ever overall position. Under CEO Carson, Johnson Matthey has carved itself an enviable lead in the specialised business of supplying automotive catalytic converters, and is now one of the UK's leading contenders in fuel-cell technology, too.