Unilever Co.

Based on votes of 858 analysts from investment managers and 1,580 analysts from sell-side firms, Unilever tops the list as Europe's Most Honored Company in Institutional Investor's All-Europe Executive Team Ranking. Anheuser-Busch InBev, Henkel and British American Tobacco also rank among the leaders.

The pressure to provide more transparent, accurate product information is mounting, especially since news broke in Europe about horse meat showing up in packaged foods labeled as beef. In a new global study, 70 percent of consumer goods manufacturers and retailers are calling for wider standards adoption across the value chain to meet consumer needs, particularly in the digital world.

Dr. Trevor Davis of IBM provides tips for achieving growth through consumer-driven, sustainable new product development

Each year, CGT's editorial staff calls attention to more than 20 additional solution and service providers that are poised to make a substantial impact on the consumer goods market with innovative yet necessary tools.

New this year, CGT's readers rank the top five technology companies that provide software/services for managing and monitoring internal and external social media communications/engagement.

It's perhaps the sales growth in emerging markets that propelled Unilever's share price to hit an all-time high on Wednesday, January 22, 2013.

Unilever will sell its global Skippy business to Hormel Foods for a total cash consideration of approximately $700 million.