10 Most Powerful Companies in the World

You know what makes the world go around? Bacon, donuts and bacon-covered donuts, of course. But also money, we suppose. Recently, MBA Central took it upon itself to make a list of the most powerful corporations in the world. The key measurements to achieve this included financial metrics such as market value, net income, assets and turnover. Reputation, market impact and the company’s reputation also factored in when compiling this list. Finally, they combed through a list of “most valuable brand” lists in order to create their own list. Logical, right? Although they created a ranking of 50 companies, we know you have better things to do with your time on this nice summer day. So we will focus on the 10 companies that led the pack.

10. Bank of China
Folks, China is an industrial behemoth. They have the largest population in the world, a highly educated class, and the world’s second largest economy. When it’s 3am and you have a case of the munchies, you can thank China for inventing General Tzo Chicken. But we digress. Bank of China makes the list for pretty obvious reasons. It has assets totaling $2.4 trillion and profits of $25.5 billion. You can find branches all over the world from the US to UAE and even Mozambique. Impressive indeed.

9. PetroChina
Folks, China is an industrial… you get the point. As you continue to read this list you will begin to notice an interesting pattern. PetroChina is the world’s largest oil company, with more than 552,000 employees! To put that in perspective, competitor ExxonMobil has a workforce of “only” 75,000. PetroChina has a market value of $202 billion. That’s a lot, guys.

8. Walmart
American retail and supermarket chain Walmart is notable for their super low prices and all the weirdos who shop there. But the numbers don’t lie: global sales in 2013-14 totaled $476.5 billion! That can buy you a lot of chewing tobacco, NASCAR hats and all sorts of required redneck trinkets.

7. Samsung
Samsung makes some pretty mean televisions and smart phones, but did you know they are a major force in life insurance, heavy industry, engineering, construction, aerospace and defense, advertising, and alpaca breeding? We’re making that last one up, but the South Korean-based conglomerate is truly powerful. Their brand value is estimated to be nearly $30 billion. If that doesn’t impress you, ask yourself this question: what is the value of your brand? Really? That’s more than we thought!