Apple co-founder Steve Jobs charged to the top of a list of the world’s best-performing CEOs, to be published in an upcoming issue of the Harvard Business Review. By dramatically turning Apple’s fortunes around in the last 12 years, Jobs beat 49 others to the top spot.
Harvard Business Review positions Jobs as the no. 1 CEO in the world, way beyond the reach of five other Silicon Valley luminaries. Only Samsung Electronics’ former chief executive Yun Jong-Yong trailed closely behind him.
Since helming a badly rotting Apple in 1997, Steve Jobs has raised the company’s market value by as much as $150 billion. The report also said Jobs delivered “a whopping 3,188% industry-adjusted return” since taking over as CEO.
In the same way, Yun got his ranking by catalyzing Samsung’s rise as the world’s biggest electronics manufacturer. Having served as its CEO from 1996 to 2008, Yun made Samsung the world’s top maker of flat-screen televisions, and number two for cell phones.
Yun is the recipient of the 2002 Asia Business Leaders Award from CNBC. In 2000, Fortune magazine acclaimed him in “Asia’s Businessman of the Year.”
Fortune likewise feted Jobs. In November, the magazine named Jobs as “CEO of the Decade.” Moreover, Time magazine distinguished him as a nominee for Person of the Year in 2009.
Finishing third place to Jobs and Yun is Alexey Miller, chief exec of Russia’s Gazprom, the largest natural gas producer in the world. Mukesh Ambani, chairperson of India’s Reliance Industries, is ranked number five.
Five others from Silicon Valley deigned to Steve Jobs. Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers came in at number four; Gilead Sciences John Martin, number six; former eBay CEO Margaret Whitman, number eight; Google CEO Eric Schmidt at number nine; and Symantec chairman John Thompson, at number nineteen.
To qualify for HBR’s report, the CEOs must have led companies listed either in Standard & Poor’s Global 1200 or its BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) 40 list. In addition, the CEOs must have served as such anytime between January 1995 and December 2007.
As such, the ranking excluded otherwise deified executives like Bill Gates of Microsoft, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Jack Welch of General Electric.
Published in HBR’s January 2010 issue, the ranking includes data on 2,000 CEOs the world over, representing 33 countries and 48 nationalities.
Tags: Apple, harvard business review, steve jobs, top ceo, yun jong yong