Investor Web-Site Names Lockheed Martin To Top-Ten List

The popular investor website 24-7 Wall Street has named Lockheed Martin to its list of the ten corporations most crucial to America’s economic future. Editors cited Lockheed’s innovations in advanced military hardware and software, including in communications and space systems, as reasons why the Bethesda-based company plays a key role in preserving America’s global economic dominance. It noted that Lockheed Martin is the largest military contractor in the world, and “forms part of the backbone of America’s military technological advantage.”

In recent years, Lockheed has repeatedly bested competitors in national-security space, sea-based combat systems, missile defense, tactical aviation, and cyber warfare to emerge as a dominant player in each segment of the federal technology market. Although much of what the company does in areas such as orbital intelligence and network security is hidden from public view by secrecy rules, it appears to be the most successful participant in most of its addressable markets, not only domestically but globally.

Lockheed has doubled its revenues over the past decade and increased sales per share every year, a pattern that has led some pundits to view it as an overbearing behemoth. However, part of the secret to its success is a corporate culture that places great emphasis on teamwork and the human dimensions of innovation. That culture tolerates dissent and rewards merit wherever it is found, which may explain why Lockheed Martin is the first big military contractor in U.S. history in which most of the major business units are led by women.

Fellow defense contractor Boeing also made the top-ten list, but everybody expects Boeing to be on such lists because of its commanding presence in the commercial-transport market. Putting Lockheed Martin on the list shows that the folks at 24-7 Wall Street understand how to look under the hood at big corporations and recognize what’s really there. Maybe that’s why General Motors didn’t make the list.