The Drucker Institute on Sunday released its annual list of the 250 best-managed companies in 2022, recognizing 29 health care and life sciences companies for "doing the right things well."

Methodology

For the "Management Top 250" list, Claremont Graduate University's Drucker Institute evaluated 902 publicly traded companies.

To be included, companies were required to be publicly traded on the Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index or the S&P Composite 1500 Index. In addition, companies were required to meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Had stock that was a component of the S&P 500 index on June 30, 2022
• Had a stock-market capitalization of at least $10 billion on June 30, 2022
• Had at least $3 billion in annual revenue as of March 31, 2022

The list is based on the Drucker Institute's holistic measure of corporate effectiveness. According to the institute, effectiveness is defined as "doing the right things well."

To measure corporate effectiveness, the Drucker Institute assessed each company's performance in five areas, including:

• Customer satisfaction (20%)
• Employee engagement and development (19%)
• Innovation (22%)
• Social responsibility (26%)
• Financial strength (13%)

To determine the final rankings, the Drucker Institute analyzed 34 data inputs provided by 14 third-party sources. According to the Wall Street Journal, none of the five areas were more important than any other. However, each area was assigned a different weight based on how strongly it correlated with overall effectiveness.

The most effectively managed health care and life sciences companies

In total, 29 health care and life sciences companies made the list, including 24 Advisory Board members:

9. Johnson & Johnson* (New Brunswick, NJ)

13. Pfizer* (New York, NY)

36. Abbott Laboratories* (Abbott Park, IL) 

47. Medtronic* (Minneapolis, MN)

52. Amgen* (Thousand Oaks, CA)

56. Eli Lilly* (Indianapolis, IN)

65. Baxter International* (Deerfield, IL)

70. Danaher* (Washington, DC)

73. Biogen* (Cambridge, MA)

80. AbbVie* (North Chicago, IL)

80. Thermo Fisher Scientific* (Waltham, MA) 

87. Edwards Lifesciences* (Irvine, CA)

88. Merck* (Kenilworth, NJ)

89. Humana* (Louisville, KY)

91. Illumina* (San Diego, CA)

98. Bristol-Myers Squibb* (New York, NY)

102. UnitedHealth Group** (Minnetonka, MN)

106. CVS Health (Woonsocket, RI)

113. Gilead Sciences* (Foster City, CA)

116. Becton Dickinson* (Franklin Lakes, NJ)

139. Laboratory Corporation of America* (Burlington, NC)

143. Zoetis (Parsippany, NJ)

149. Boston Scientific* (Marlborough, MA)

156. Cardinal Health* (Dublin, OH)

160. Walgreens Boots Alliance* (Deerfield, IL)

180. Moderna (Cambridge, MA)

212. ResMed* (San Diego, CA)

222. Intuitive Surgical* (Sunnyvale, CA)

243. Vertex Pharmaceuticals* (Boston, MA)

*Denotes an Advisory Board member.

**Advisory Board is a subsidiary of Optum, a division of UnitedHealth Group. All Advisory Board research, expert perspectives, and recommendations remain independent.

(Management Top 250 ranking, 12/11; Management Top 250 methodology,12/11; Wall Street Journal, 12/11; Wall Street Journal (2), 12/11; Gamble, Becker's Hospital Review, 12/12)