The Guru Scene 2008

dihard:

The Wall Street Journal’s Guru Scene 2008 ranks the most influential business thinkers based on media mentions, Google hits, and academic citations. The top ten are

  1. Gary Hamel - Consultant
  2. Thomas L. Friedman - NYT columnist
  3. Bill Gates - Microsoft chairman
  4. Malcom Gladwell - Author ‘The Tipping Point”
  5. Howard Gardner - Harvard professor
  6. Philip Kotler - Northwester professor (tie w/ Reich)
  7. Robert Reich - Ex-Labor Secretary under Clinton (tie w/ Kotler)
  8. Daniel Goleman -Psychologist
  9. Henry Mintzberg - McGill professor
  10. Stephen R. Covey - Author ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’

See the top 20 which include many non-traditional business experts like journalists and psychologists. But where are all the women?

Isn’t it interesting how few of these people actually have any real impact on business and commerce?  (Bill Gates would have been a logical choice for number 3 maybe 10 years ago, but not now.  Same with Michael Dell.  Where’s Steve Jobs?)  I can see some middle-level manager being enamored with some of these guys, but actual CEOs?  Aren’t most of these people that might appeal to the common man’s notion of business, as opposed to the corporate man’s notion of business?  And since this list is based on press mentions, doesn’t that suggest that there is a disconnect between the press and reality?  

Source: dihard

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