Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. tops DiversityInc's 14th annual Top 50 Companies for Diversity ranking. DiversityInc announced the results its 2014 ranking April 22.
Novartis hit the summit after finishing No. 6 in last year's list. The company's president, Andre Wyss, says Novartis has worked hard to ingrain diversity into its operations. "We fundamentally believe it drives innovation, moves our business and our people forward, and, most importantly, directly impacts our ability to develop life-saving products and solutions," Wyss says.
More than 1,200 public and private companies competed for spots on DiversityInc's Top 50 list.
In addition to Novartis, 20 other manufacturing companies made this year's cut. Also finishing in DiversityInc's Top 10 were Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.
Interestingly, this year's survey shows that Silicon Valley still has some catching up to do: Technology companies continue to lag behind other sectors in embracing diversity. While IBM and Dell made the list at No. 23 and 32, respectively, Microsoft fell off the list after appearing at No. 44 in 2013, and Apple declined to participate.
The accompanying photo gallery presents the Top 10 manufacturers in this year's Top 50 Companies for Diversity ranking.
In addition to the 10 manufacturing companies featured in this gallery, others that made this year's DiversityInc list are Northrop Grumman at No. 28; Colgate-Palmolive, No. 30; Kellogg Co., 31; Dell, 32; Coca-Cola, 33; Kraft Foods, 35; Toyota, 38; Rockwell Collins, 40; Medtronic, 41; Monsanto, 46; and AbbVie, 49.
