Not that we're all that surprised that so many Texas companies made their way to the World's Most Admired List of companies published by Fortune Magazine. After all, Texas does many things very, very well--including and especially business.

Still, it's nice to see them recognized. The list is based primarily on corporate reputation. As you might have guessed, the ranking for 2021 was also affected by how well these businesses performed and provided for the public during the Coronavirus pandemic.

What methodology do they use? According to Fortune.com, they "collaborated with [their] partner Korn Ferry on this survey of corporate reputations. They began with a universe of about 1,500 candidates: the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue, along with non-U.S. companies in Fortune’s Global 500 database that have revenues of $10 billion or more."

"[They] winnowed the assortment to the highest-revenue companies in each industry, a total of 670 in 30 countries. The top-rated companies were picked from that pool of 670; the executives who voted work at the companies in that group."

Sounds like quite a thorough process. You can glean more about their methodology here.

So which Texas companies were on the list? The highest rated Texas-based company was Southwest Airlines, a company almost considered borderline beloved by both customers and employees. (Well, as "beloved" as any company can be.) I can say that although I've never had the pleasure of flying Southwest, I've only heard good things from those who have.

Other Texas-based companies on the list include USAA (San Antonio) and Schwab (Westlake-Austin).

What about the others? The Dallas Morning News reports "fourteen other Texas-based companies made the list of 333, although Fortune only assigns rankings to the top 50. Of the Texas companies, nine are in Dallas-Fort Worth."

Way to go, Texas. 

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