1. The World's Best Companies 2009 Global Champions Top 40 By Esmé E. Deprez, with A.T. Kearney & BusinessWeek staff The past 12 months will be remembered by many investors and executives as some of the most dismal. Yet despite all the doom and gloom, some companies have continued to prosper—such as those on the World's Best Companies/Global Top 40 list compiled for BusinessWeek by management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. (The consultancy expanded its annual Global Champions ranking from 25 companies.) Companies from around the world were ranked using sales growth and value creation—the rise of market capitalization after subtracting any increase in capital—over the past five years. The top companies, with approximately $700 billion in sales and a collective market cap of $1 trillion, have generated sales growth of 27% per year for the past five years. Meanwhile, companies in the S&P 500 have generated average annual sales growth of 7% over the past five years. ** CAGR: Compound Annual Growth Rate