Claremont, California, Dec. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- Claremont, Calif. The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University today published its 2025 Management Effectiveness Rankings, showcasing how leading U.S. companies performed across the five dimensions of Peter F. Drucker’s management philosophy.
Using data from 34 indicators, the rankings assessed 668 companies based on customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility, and financial strength. The top-scoring firms make up the Management Top 250, which has been published in The Wall Street Journal annually since 2017. The complete list of all 668 companies with detailed scores is available at the Drucker Institute.
A Year of Management Resilience
The 2025 results demonstrate steady progress across all five areas. Companies focused on clarifying priorities, enhancing systems, and rebuilding trust with employees and customers. Industrials, utilities, and health care firms led in stability. Technology and finance companies adopted more selective and disciplined growth strategies. Overall, these trends highlight a year of management resilience.
“Peter Drucker believed that institutions exist to preserve judgment and strengthen society,” said Michelle Bligh, President of Claremont Graduate University. “We see these rankings as part of that mission. They highlight organizations that invest in people, act purposefully, and make decisions based on responsibility. In a time when trust in institutions is fragile, Drucker’s principles remind us that effective management is more than a business practice. It is a public good.”
Peter Drucker taught that management has a responsibility to society. He believed that institutions exist not only to perform but to serve. The Management Effectiveness Rankings reflect that view. They highlight organizations that manage with purpose, build trust, and treat effectiveness as a public good rather than just a business technique.
“2025 rewarded companies that focus on people, purpose, and clarity,” said Michael H. Kelly, Executive Director of the Drucker Institute. “The firms that improved did not grow faster than others. They managed better. They invested in their workers, applied innovation with discipline, and acted with greater responsibility. Drucker taught that effectiveness is doing the right things well. This year’s results show that companies that follow that principle rise to the top.”
What Nine Years of Data Reveal
The 2025 ranking marks nine years of research by the Institute on America’s best-managed companies. During that time, several patterns have emerged.
• Employee engagement is the best predictor of overall performance. Companies that invest in culture, inclusion, and development experience the most significant improvements in customer satisfaction, innovation, and long-term resilience.
• Focused, purposeful innovation surpasses innovation driven solely by speed. Applied R&D, AI integration, and process improvements yield more lasting benefits than headline-grabbing inventions.
• Social responsibility has become a key aspect of effectiveness. Companies with high responsibility scores typically demonstrate stronger financial performance and gain more trust from employees and customers.
• Maintaining balance across the five dimensions is more crucial than excelling in just one. The most resilient companies are those that consistently manage all five.
“Each year reinforces the same lesson,” said Danny Martin, Chief Data Scientist at the Drucker Institute. “Employee engagement is the energy source of the organization. Innovation is the circulatory system. Customer satisfaction reflects external health. Social responsibility strengthens the immune system. Financial strength is a vital sign. The companies that balance all of these do best.”
"Doing fewer things better has become the most durable form of leadership," said David Sprott Henry Y.Hwang Dean, Drucker School of Management Professor of Marketing. "These rankings show that companies are learning to manage complexity without losing sight of people or purpose. That is exactly the kind of leadership Drucker believed society depends on."
The 2025 results also reflect one of Drucker’s most lasting messages: effectiveness comes from clarity and focus. The strongest companies did not try to do everything; they focused on the right things and executed them well. These patterns align with the principles Drucker outlined for leaders. Clarity of purpose, disciplined choices, and the ability to stop doing what no longer matters all contribute to long-term resilience.
About the Drucker Institute
The Drucker Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center and think tank dedicated to exploring new frontiers in management theory and practice. Founded in 1999, the Institute preserves and promotes the work of Peter F. Drucker, widely known as the Father of Modern Management. Collaborating with purpose-driven organizations across the public, private, and social sectors, the Institute champions responsible leadership and effective management as key elements that support Drucker's vision for a well-functioning society.
Contact: Michael Kelly, executive director, The Drucker Institute, Michael.kelly@cgu.edu 310/714-9473
Michael Kelly The Drucker Institute 310-714-9473 Michael.kelly@cgu.edu