RIL is the only Indian company in the 25 A T Kearney Global Champions for 2009 list, which has been topped by Japanese firm Nintendo, followed by US-based Google and Apple at the second and the third positions respectively.

Even as the proportion of companies headquartered in emerging countries has dropped from 40 per cent in 2008 to 33 per cent in this year’s list, RIL along with Mexico’s America Movil managed to maintain their status as Global Champions, A T Kearney said. RIL has been ranked in the 11th position ahead of global biggies like Jacobs Engineering, World Fuel Services, ABB, Amazon.com and America Movil.

Rate of change
“The financial crisis has greatly accelerated the rate of change in underlying global business conditions. Companies that were able to align a disciplined growth-oriented strategy to the transformed economic landscape were the ones that dominated,” A T Kearney Chairman and Managing Officer Paul Laudicina said.

Top ten firms
The top ten companies in the list include South Korea’s Doosan (fourth), Hyundai Heavy Industries (fifth), French firm GDF Suez (sixth), South African firm MTM (seventh), US-based Monsanto (eighth), Spain’s Inditex (ninth) and Australia’s BHP Billiton in the 10th rank. Laudicina said “neither the size nor market position is a necessary pre-condition for superior growth or protection against market turbulence.

Instead, the themes that emerge include an in-depth understanding of what the market needed at a particular time, an ability to plan beyond the immediate environment, and focus on flawless execution.” The constituent of this year’s list were identified from the world’s 2,500 largest companies operating internationally, with 2008 sales greater than US$10 billion and at least 25 per cent of sales derived from outside their home region.

Earlier this month, Boston Consulting Group had ranked RIL as the fifth biggest ‘sustainable value creator’ in a list of 25 top companies globally in terms of investor returns over a decade.