Indofood takes pole position: Survey

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Instant noodle maker Indofood Sukses Makmur was voted the top Indonesian firm for overall leadership this year in the Far Eastern Economic Review's annual company survey, the Review 200: Asia's Leading Companies.

"After two consecutive years at No. 2, Indofood finally inched past Astra to claim the top spot. The world's largest manufacturer of noodles by volume, the flagship of the Salim Group has fought upstart competitors to maintain its dominance of Indonesia's noodle market," the magazine said its latest edition which hit newsstands Thursday.

Automotive maker Astra International, which takes the No. 2 position in the survey, remained the company most admired for the quality of its products and long-term vision of management, the magazine said.

Tobacco firm Gudang Garam also moved up a notch to take third place for overall leadership.

Other firms taking place in the top ten list are banking firm Bank Central Asia (4), tobacco firm Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna (5), state-telecommunications firm Indosat (6), tobacco firm Djarum (7), bottled-drink maker Sosro (8), television station SCTV (9) and state-telecommunications firm Telkom (10).

During the survey, which was conducted by ACNielsen International Research (Hong Kong), respondents were asked to rank companies on their overall leadership performance. The respondents, totaling 2,547 people, were also asked about the quality of services and products of the listed companies, the long term vision of their management, the innovations made by the companies in responding to customers' needs and the soundness of their finances.