Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Talk of the bay

Despite poor Florida image, Convergys gets high marks

By JONI JAMES
Published March 7, 2005

Its name may be mud with thousands of Florida state workers who have had problems with paychecks or benefits, but inside the boardroom and on Wall Street, Convergys' star shines.

For the fifth year in a row, the Cincinnati company that has the high-profile, $350-million contract to privatize state government's personnel and payroll systems has won a spot on Fortune magazine's "America's Most Admired" list of companies.

The annual list, published in today's edition of the magazine, draws from a survey of 10,000 executives, directors and securities analysts of 582 large companies.

Convergys is pegged the third most admired "diversified outsourcing" company in 2004 behind Cintas Corp. of Cincinnati and Aramark Corp. of Philadelphia. It also won top scores in two of the survey's eight categories: innovation and social responsibility. The other categories surveyors are asked to consider: financial soundness, employee talent, use of corporate assets, long-term investment value, quality of management, and quality of products and services.

Tampa Bay area companies that made the list: Outback Steakhouse of Tampa was the third most admired food service company behind Starbucks and McDonald's and ahead of sixth-place Darden Restaurants of Orlando; Clearwater's Tech Data Corp. was named fourth most admired wholesaler of office electronics; and St. Petersburg's Jabil Circuits was ranked the 10th most admired semiconductor company.

[Last modified March 4, 2005, 19:36:02]