U.S. current affairs weekly
Time (TIME) recently announced the results of its "World's Best Companies 2025" evaluation, and Hyundai Motor was the only South Korean corporation included in the top 100.
According to Time and industry sources, Hyundai Motor rose to 33rd this year in Time's evaluation based on three indicators: employee satisfaction, revenue growth, and environmental, social and governance (ESG). It jumped a remarkable 159 places from 192nd in 2024.
Hyundai Motor also ranked the highest among Asian automakers, overtaking Japan's Toyota (48th).
To evaluate the world's top-performing corporations, Time has selected the world's top 1,000 companies since 2023 together with Statista, the German global data and business information platform company.
They rank companies by collecting and evaluating three categories of data: employee satisfaction surveys based on responses from more than 200,000 people worldwide, corporate growth data for the past three years using Statista's sales databases, and Statista's ESG composite index, and then combining the scores for the three institutional sectors in equal proportions.
Hyundai Motor's sharp rise in ranking is attributed to global employee satisfaction, sustained revenue growth and ongoing efforts on ESG, including carbon reduction and human rights policies. In Hyundai Motor Group's annual employee job satisfaction survey, Hyundai Motor scored a record-high 79.4 in 2024. Its voluntary turnover rate was 0.39%, the lowest among domestic corporations.
Performance over the past three years has also shown clear growth. Revenue, which was 142 trillion won in 2022, recorded 175 trillion won in 2024, an increase of about 23%, and operating profit expanded about 45% from 9.8 trillion won to 14.2 trillion won over the same period. This is interpreted as the combined effect of improvements in product mix focused on high value-added models, recovery in global demand and strategies to expand eco-friendly vehicles.
Hyundai Motor fulfills social responsibilities such as employee diversity and human rights and works to minimize environmental impact for sustainable growth. It has signed large-scale renewable energy purchase agreements in Korea, the United States and India, and is implementing a RE100 goal to convert 100% of its business sites to renewable energy, moving toward its 2045 carbon neutrality vision.
At the same time, it continues various efforts to enhance shareholder value and strengthen the independence and expertise of the board, including introducing a system for appointing nominated outside directors, establishing an outside board, operating a shareholder-nominated outside director appointment system, appointing an outside director as chairperson of committees, and appointing outside directors with executive backgrounds.
A Hyundai Motor official said, "The significance of these results is deepened by the fact that they were certified by a credible external institution," and added, "We expect this will also help strengthen investor confidence and positively spread the brand."
Meanwhile, Nvidia ranked first overall in this survey, and Microsoft was second. Apple, which ranked first in 2024's "World's Best Companies," fell out of the rankings this year as its revenue growth slowed.
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