Corporate reputation is a relatively new terminology. In these turbulent times, managing reputation is of utmost importance for businesses. This paper studies the various definitions of corporate reputation and the need to manage it. While many magazines and agencies conduct surveys and publish findings on the most admired or best managed companies in India, most of them are based on financial performance, market capitalization, and views of researchers or analysts on the management of companies. But, what is the view of the general public? Are the largest or most profitable companies, the most reputed ones in India? The paper ranks Indian companies based on nominations received from the general public to arrive at the 10 most visible, most reputed and worst companies in India. It also tries to find out if measures such as age, size, media exposure and the number of employees have any relationship with reputation.

The business landscape in India is depicted as a conglomerate of family-owned, government held and stockholders controlled companies. Another significant portion of large companies are part of multinational groups.