Business Opinion

9 South African companies ranked among the best in the world – including for work-life balance

Jonathan Hoyle

 ·14 Sep 2026

Time Magazine has published its list of the best-performing companies in the world, with nine South African businesses being named.

The list ranks the top 1,000 businesses in the world based on several factors that determine each one’s overall performance and assigns a score out of 100.

The factors used to determine company success include employee satisfaction, revenue growth, and sustainability transparency.

The highest-ranking South African company was Sanlam, which placed 388th.

The South African insurance giant also ranked “very high” in the growth sub-ranking, with the group planning to introduce banking services as part of its amenities in the next year.

Sanlam CEO Paul Hanratty said it was a proud moment for the company to receive global recognition for its efforts.

“We are proud to see Sanlam acknowledged on this global stage. The recognition reflects the commitment of our people and the trust our clients place in us,” he said.

“What makes this ranking particularly meaningful is that it looks beyond financial performance alone, recognising companies that create long-term value through their people, sustainable growth and responsible business practices.”

The next highest ranked South African company was Absa in 410th, which joined two other banks from the country on the list – Standard Bank and Capitec.

Capitec was another company which received distinction in the growth sub-ranking, being deemed “very high” by the list.

Old Mutual, South Africa’s oldest insurer and one of its oldest companies, ranked 699 on the list and also achieved the “very high” growth rate distinction.

South Africa’s telecommunications sector was represented on the Times’ list, with MTN ranking 636 out of the 1,000 companies named.

In the country’s retail sector, both Shoprite and Pick n Pay made the list, ranking 563rd and 842nd, respectively.

Bidvest, the logistics and international services group founded and based in South Africa, ranked 664th on the list.

South African businesses in Times Magazine’s World’s Best Companies

The global rankings

In the overall list, the American company NVIDIA ranked first with an overall score of 97.51 and an “outstanding” growth sub-ranking.

Of the top ten companies, seven were based in the US, while the remaining three were situated in Ireland, Germany, and the UK.

Times Magazine noted that the top of the list was dominated by companies involved in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

“The economy built around AI has continued to boom even as experts and leaders work to hammer out the technology’s execution problem and debate the guardrails that should be put around it,” it said.

Meta, Apple, and NVIDIA are some of the biggest names in the AI industry, and were all ranked in the top five.

Outside of AI, European companies in the defence industry performed well after the EU pledged approximately €800 billion in investments to defence readiness by 2030.

Companies such as Thales and Leonardo, both involved in the European defence sector, ranked in the top 50 on the Times’ list.

Times Magazine noted that these companies are performing well as countries work to bolster their defensive capabilities with new technologies.

It noted that technology such as drones and unmanned vehicles had seen sizeable increases in investment in the last few years.

In the employee satisfaction sub-category, Microsoft ranked first, while also ranking sixth on the overall list.

Among the South African companies listed, the best-performing in the employee satisfaction sub-category was Absa.