Most admired
Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.
Employees: 8,000
The business: About 24 million U.S. customers use Intuit's TurboTax service online or through mobile devices. Intuit processes billions in refunds for electronic tax filers every year.
??? Intuit dominates the market for DIY financial-management software, a category that the $3.9 billion company basically invented 29 years ago. Having faced down Microsoft and many other would-be competitors over the years, Intuit is now branching into new markets like mobile apps that help patients make sense of medical billing statements or farmers track commodity prices. Although this diversification strategy carries risks, few analysts are betting against Intuit, the most admired software company in America this year.
What it does
??? Small businesses across North America run on Intuit's QuickBooks accounting app, while millions of consumers use TurboTax and Quicken to keep their financial lives in order. Other Intuit cash cows: payroll and payment-processing services for small businesses, and high-octane tax and accounting products for professional accountants. Intuit is broadening its business model beyond selling desktop software to delivering online financial-management services. "Consumers adopt first, then businesses, then accountants," says CEO Brad Smith, who notes that web-based product delivery helps Intuit by generating steady subscription revenues.
Its risk
??? Intuit's rivals aren't giving up. In the tax arena the company faces stiff competition from traditional tax preparers like H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt. As the software industry shifts to cloud-based services, it becomes easier for tiny startups to undercut established players like Intuit with cheaper financial-management services. And some analysts worry that innovation at too fast a pace could prove distracting.
