Burson-Marsteller and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report on the “most admired” CEOs for 2005.
The 2005 CEO Capital™ study asked more than 600 global business influentials in 65 countries to write in which CEO or chairman they admire most in the business world today.
Result? Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect, came out as the world’s most admired business leader. The CEO/chairman rankings appear below.
format: Rank CEO/Chairman Company Country
1 Bill Gates Microsoft U.S.
2 Steve Jobs Apple U.S.
3 Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway U.S.
4 Michael Dell Dell U.S.
5 Richard Branson Virgin Group U.K.
6 John Browne BP U.K.
7 Carlos Gohsn Nissan Motor & Renault Japan/France
8 N.R. Narayana Murthy Infosys Technologies India
9 Jeffrey Immelt General Electric U.S.
10 Rupert Murdoch News Corporation Australia
11 John Bond HSBC Holdings U.K.
12 John Chambers Cisco Systems U.S.
13 Jorma Ollila Nokia Finland
14 Terry Leahy Tesco U.K.
15 Lakshmi Mittal Mittal Steel Netherlands
Several interesting characteristics about the world’s top 15 most admired leaders surfaced:
1. Despite the predominance of American companies among the top four most admired leaders, more than half (nine of 15 or 60 percent) represent other regions — UK (4), Finland (1), Netherlands (1), Japan/France (1), India (1) and Australia (1).
2. Eight of the top 15 leaders (53 percent) are company founders.
3. All of the global most admired are insider CEOs (CEOs who have been with the same company for three years or more).
4. No female CEOs or chairmen were chosen.
Hmmm… I wonder how many of these CEOs will mess up in 2006? I can’t say I think any of them will. But Gates has the potential to lose big in the next three years.
My vote goes to Ricardo Semler. And keep an eye out for Eric Schmidt!