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BusinessWeek uses 10 performance metrics, starting with sales and earnings growth. They tally both for the most recent 12-month and three-year periods, to reward companies that can prosper over time. As a gauge of how well management deploys its resources, BW factors in net profit margins and return on equity. And finally they account for the market’s view, by measuring total shareholder returns for one- and three-year periods.

BusinessWeek also weighs the results for sales volume, because it’s harder for large companies to post impressive revenue- and profit-growth figures. And BW factors in the debt-to-capital ratio, to recognize clean balance sheets. That also makes it harder for corporations to qualify with growth that’s primarily the result of debt-laden acquisitions.