With its fourth-place ranking, Siemens is the best non-American company. General Electric defended its previous top place ahead of Procter & Gamble and Intel. The top-ten list also included Banco Santander, Coca Cola, McDonald's, Accenture, Walmart and Southwest Airlines. The rankings of the Hay Group study are based on company methods of developing management and management culture. One quarter of the surveyed firms come from each of the four regions of North America, South America, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The study identifies three key strengths of the successful companies: They push cooperation within their complex corporate structures, they leverage the cultural diversity of their workforces as a competitive advantage, and they orient their management development to future demographic challenges. This was also confirmed by Dr. Nicolas von Rosty, Corporate Vice President Executive Development of Siemens AG: "Siemens' workforce, which is distinguished by an immense variety of languages, cultures and training, provides the basis of our business success. But only with responsible management that effectively drives cooperation throughout the company can we find the solutions that ensure this success."

More information on the study and its results can be found at: www.haygroup.com/bestcompaniesforleadership

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the industry, energy and healthcare sectors. For over 160 years, Siemens has stood for technological excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality. The company is the world's largest provider of environmental technologies, generating some €28 billion - more than one-third of its total revenue – from green products and solutions. In fiscal 2010, which ended on September 30, 2010, revenue totaled €76 billion and net income €4.1 billion. At the end of September 2010, Siemens had around 405,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at: http://www.siemens.com