Best of 2008

Best and Worst Managers of 2008

• The best leaders have not only ridden out the crisis so far but also gleaned valuable, often profitable, lessons from it. The worst? Well, some helped set the economic crisis in motion; others became paragons of bad judgment in a time of trouble. Here are the leaders of 2008 with all their successes and failures.

• It’s not easy to measure excellence in a year like 2008. While some managers can be judged by the bottom line, others merely had the good fortune to be running a food company instead of a financial firm. Then again, with volatile commodity prices, succeeding in the food business wasn’t such an easy task.

• BusinessWeek has singled out 12 executives who did a remarkable job of navigating stormy waters. Some have posted stellar results. Others are struggling. But there are lessons to be learned from each of them.

2008 Top Employers to Work For

• Fortune surveyed nearly 100,000 employees from 406 different companies and asked them to evaluate their employers. Click here for the full list of America's top 100 employers, including detailed company profiles, top locations, and contact information.
  

Best Global Brands – 2008 Rankings

• Interbrand takes many ingredients into account when ranking the value of the Best Global Brands. Even to qualify for the list, each brand must derive at least a third of its earnings outside its home country, be recognizable outside of its base of customers, and have publicly available marketing and financial data.

• Click above to see the list of all the 100 top brands

• Click here to see the slide show and get a snapshot of each of the 100 brands.

Best and Worst Tech Products of 2008

• Apple (AAPL) led the charge, updating its bestselling iPhone with innovative new software and hardware, while Research In Motion (RIMM) and Google (GOOG) dipped their toes into the smartphone space with daring designs of their own.

• The year in tech had its share of superb follow-ups, like the practical and hip Flip Mino camera and Mozilla's instantly popular Firefox 3. But there were plenty of spectacular surprises as well, from Google's out-of-left-field Web browser to Netflix's entrance into the hardware business.

• Click above for the 20 best tech products of 2008, as selected by BusinessWeek's technology writers and editors, as well as five highly anticipated products that failed to meet expectations.

Best Business Architecture of 2008

• As commercial construction falls deeper into recession, it seems fitting that the winners of this year's BusinessWeek/Architectural Record awards show the payoffs of investing in smart design.

• The contest, in its 11th year, honors buildings that adhere to the sponsors' semi-official tagline: "Good design is good business." A jury of editors from BusinessWeek and Architectural Record (both owned by The McGraw-Hill Companies (MFP)) analyzed more than 100 submissions from around the world, paying particular attention not to showy facades or flashy foyers but rather to the impact of a design on a company's bottom line.

• Click above to check out the best business buildings of 2008.

Airline of the Year 2008

• For the 3rd time in 10 years, Singapore Airlines has been named World's Best Airline, winning the 2008 Airline of the Year title in the latest World Airline Awards.

• Over 15 million eligible survey interviews were completed during the 11 month Survey period. From Seoul to Sao Paulo, Copenhagen to Cape Town, the scale and breadth of the 2008 survey further strengthens the well-established reputation as the World's Largest Passenger Survey.

• Click above to find the Top 10 airlines of the Year 2008.

• Click here to get the 2008 Worldwide results breakdown in terms of Best Regional Airline, Best by Cabin Type, and Best Low-Cost Airlines.