The world's largest corporations

What are the biggest companies in the world? Try to answer this question with a single metric (like sales) and you wind up with a lopsided list (one cluttered with retailers). We use four measures -- sales, market value, assets and profits -- to produce a composite measure of bigness.

We also scorecard these companies to produce Global High Performers, an elite list of fast-growing big companies that set the pace for their respective industries.

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Rank | Company | Country | Industry
Sales | Profits | Assets | MarketVaue

• Biggest Winners And Losers
• Profit Winners And Losers

Feautres

Why Globalization is Good
Multinationals are trashed as exploiters of the poorest people on the planet. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The Cost Of Corruption
An important survey rates nations on bribery, cronyism, nepotism and their impact on business competitiveness.

The Next People's Car
Tata Motors' plans would produce, in real terms, by far the cheapest car ever made.

• Tata in Tacoma?

I'll Handle That
Global trade is getting more complex. Expeditors International is one middleman you don't want to eliminate.

Meeting the Halal Test
Nestlé mastered elaborate religious rules to sell its products in the Islamic world. It's paid off with $3 billion in annual sales.

Basics R Us
Britian's Hanson has simplified itself in building materials supply, and the U.S. has the demand.

A New Calling
In Afghanistan a private mobile phone company is wiring a devastated country--and daring to put women to work.