Harrah’s, Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart make Fortune list

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2000 | 11:22 a.m.

Harrah's Entertainment Inc. has displaced Las Vegas rival Mirage Resorts Inc. as the most admired gaming company in the nation, a Fortune magazine survey found.

Two other companies with big and expanding Las Vegas operations -- Wal-Mart and Southwest Airlines -- are the most admired companies in their industries in the new Fortune list of America's most admired companies.

General Electric leads the overall most admired list, followed by Microsoft, Dell Computer, Cisco Systems, Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, Berkshire Hathaway, Intel, Home Depot and Lucent Technologies.

The nation's least admired companies, according to respondents to a Fortune survey, include Humana, TWA, Rite Aid and Trump Resorts.

Marriott International is No. 1 in the category of hotels, casinos and resorts. It is followed by Host Marriott, Harrah's, Mirage, Hilton Hotels, Mandalay Resort Group, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Wyndham International and Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts.

Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas, which Hilton spun off last year, was not ranked. It's the nation's largest hotel-casino company.

The ranking saw Mirage dive from its No. 1 position in 1998 while Harrah's improved from No. 4 and Mandalay was up from No. 8. Mirage and its chief executive, Steve Wynn, have struggled in opening the Bellagio and Beau Rivage resorts and in their relationships with Wall Street analysts.

"The ranking is yet another indication that the efforts by all our employees to execute our strategic growth plan of being the leading consumer-marketing company in the casino industry are working," Phil Satre, Harrah's chairman and chief executive, said of his company's achievement.

Citigroup, with substantial Las Vegas operations, tops the list of most admired money center banks. Wells Fargo is No. 1 among super-regional banks. U.S. Bancorp is No. 3 and Bank of America is No. 4.

In the airline category, Southwest is trailed by Continental, American, Delta, United, Alaska Air, Northwest, America West, US Air and TWA.

AutoNation, a big player in Las Vegas, is the most-admired company in the automotive retailing and services industry.

Home Depot is No. 1 among specialty retailers. Among food and drug stores, Walgreen is No. 1, followed by Safeway (owns Von's), Publix, Kroger (owns Smith's Food & Drug, PriceRite) and Albertson's (owns Sav-On drugs).

Wal-Mart is No. 1 among general merchandisers, followed by Target and Mervyn's owner Dayton Hudson and No. 3 Nordstrom.

Sprint, the local phone company in Las Vegas, is No. 3 in its industry behind No. 1 SBC Communications and Sprint merger partner MCI WorldCom.

Among health care companies, big Las Vegas players include No. 5 Tenet, No. 6 Columbia/HCA and No. 7 PacifiCare.

On the construction list, Las Vegas operators include No. 3 Pulte, No. 7 Fluor and No. 8 Kaufman & Broad Homes.