These are findings of this year's ranking of the Top 100 CEOs, which has been compiled by the Harvard Business Review from 2010.
The purposes of the ranking is to evaluate CEOs based on objectively measurable results achieved in the course of their functions, not public opinion. The ranking measures both financial and non-financial (environmental, social) performance of companies.
It evaluates CEOs of the companies in the S&P Global 1200 Index, which covers approximately 70% of the market value of global equities and includes companies from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia. After excluding CEOs who were dismissed, convicted of a crime, arrested or have not yet been in their positions for more than two years, this year's rankings evaluated a total of 898 CEOs from 887 companies based in 31 countries worldwide.
Who the best CEOs are
The 2017 list of top CEOs is very similar to last year's ranking. Two of this year's top three CEOs also appeared in the top three in 2016. The top 100 group includes 72 CEOs who were there last year as well. 23 CEOs are in the top 100 for the fourth consecutive year.
Pablo Isla, CEO of the multinational clothing company Inditex based in Spain, is the winner for the first time. Martin Sorrell, CEO the largest global marketing agency WPP based in the UK, ranks second as he did last year. Jensen Huang of the IT company NVIDIA based in Silicon Valley, USA, closes the top three.
If the ranking measured only financial performance of companies, only one man - the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos - would have been the best performing CEO since 2014.
Pablo Isla (b. 1964) graduated with a law degree. Before entering the position of the CEO of Inditex in 2005, he worked in the banking industry and for the Spanish Treasury. In Inditex, he managed mainly its global expansion when on average one shop was opened every day. The company's market value increased seven times and Inditex became the most valuable Spanish company.
Colleagues describe his managerial style as humble and sometimes even shy. While he spends most of the time visiting the shops, he does not want to be at the centre of attention. He seldom takes part in events such as openings of shops or beginnings of the season. He prefers personal meetings with employees at a less formal level.
Martin Sorrell (b. 1945) is an MBA graduate who founded WPP after ten years of marketing experience. He became famous thanks to a series of successful acquisitions of other advertising agencies. He has been the company's CEO since 1986.
Jensen Huang (b. 1963) studied Electrical Engineering at the Stanford University. He is a co-founder, current president and CEO of NVIDIA. The company was founded on the day of his 30th birthday in 1993. His company has become famous for its production of integrated circuits and graphics processors and chips. At present, it focuses on, for example, artificial intelligence car computers for autonomous or partially autonomous cars.
For more information on the rating methodology, the whole ranking and specific data, please visit https://hbr.org/2017/11/the-best-performing-ceos-in-the-world-2017.
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