According to an official release, the five companies that lead the rankings in Corporate Reputation Strength (CRS) are TISCO, Infosys, Wipro, Maruti Udyog and Hero Honda.

Amongst the Financial Community, TISCO leads with a CRS Index of 88. Other companies with relatively strong corporate reputation in this stakeholder group are Wipro, L&T, Hero Honda, Infosys, Maruti Udyog, Reliance Infocomm, Tata Motors and Hyundai Motors.

Amongst the general public TISCO leads with a CRS Index of 82 followed by Maruti Udyog, Wipro, MRF, Infosys and Hero Honda. Maruti Udyog leads in Corporate Reputation Leverage strength.

Among these leading companies, there are clear differences in CRS ratings between Engineering and Management students. While Infosys is 'top of the heap' among Management students, Tata Consultancy Services is preferred among Engineering students. Interestingly, many of the companies that are rated high among the other stakeholder groups do not find much favor among students. While ratings among management students are higher for FMCG companies, the responses of engineering students are skewed away from such companies, adds the release.

A striking finding of this round of the Corporate Reputation Manager exercise is the strong performance of the Korean MNCs - LG, Samsung and Hyundai Motors. Equally surprising is that Hindustan Lever has not figured in the top rung. Moreover, none of the telecom, pharma or banking companies figure in the top bracket of companies with extremely strong all round reputation.

A total of 60 leading companies across diverse sectors were selected for the study. The survey was conducted between August-September, 2004, with fieldwork audited and certified by the BIS.