Tata Steel tops corporate reputation list, Bharti Airtel fifth

According to Nielsen's corporate image monitor that measures people's perception of the image of the country's leading firms, largest consumer goods firm by sales, Hindustan Unilever has dropped to the 10th position in 2010, down from the seventh place two years back.

Others, including L&T, Bajaj Auto and HDFC, have dropped out of the list of top 10 corporates in the 2010 study, compared to the previous survey of 2008.

Interestingly, IT giant Infosys has dropped to number seven in 2010, compared to the number two position in 2008.

In the previous survey, Tata Steel was at the fifth position, while Tata Motors was ranked first. Aditya Birla Nuvo and Bharti Airtel did not figure in top 10 list of the last survey.

Wipro was ranked fourth, which it has retained this time also.

"Corporate reputation is a very critical factor that drives stakeholder's perception about a company and thereby it's sustained growth," The Nielsen Company Executive Director Surekha Poddar said.

It is a summation of the organisation's past actions, experiences of stakeholders as well as the communication, in the eyes of the internal and external stakeholder, she added.

As per the study, elements that drive corporate reputation are customer service, product quality, financial performance, innovation, pace of growth, media visibility, vision, leadership and talent pool.

The study suggests that 'being innovative' is an important element in shaping a company's reputation.

"Wipro, Bharti Airtel and TCS lead the 'innovators' in the service sector, while Aditya Birla Nuvo, Tata Motors and RIL, constituted the top three most innovative companies in the product category," the survey said.

The Nielsen Corporate Image Monitor is an annual syndicated study conducted by the Nielsen Company. The study was not conducted in 2009. The selection of companies for the survey is based on market capitalisation, sale and assets.

The survey represents the view of 1,705 people, including policy makers, investors, corporate executives, influence groups, corporate elites and general public, across the top seven metros, according to Nielsen.