The Wall Street Journal Business Gurus List
May 06, 2008
The Wall Street Journal yesterday had a major feature titled "New Breed of Business Gurus Rises. " The article provides a ranking of the thought leaders in business today. The ranking system is based on the 2003 book What's the Big Idea?
The Wall Street Journal yesterday had a major feature titled "New Breed of Business Gurus Rises." The article provides a ranking of the thought leaders in business today. The ranking system is based on the 2003 book What's the Big Idea? : Creating and Capitalizing on the Best New Management Thinking by Thomas Davenport. Davenport compiled the rankings using data from Google mentions, Lexus-Nexus media hits, and academic citations.
The methodology creates a systematic way of measuring popularity, but it seems problematic. Take the case of Bill Gates at #3 on the list. For the man who created Microsoft, people are constantly talking about him in the media, online, and in academia. It seems a stretch that business people look to Gates for advice.
Outside of Gates, the folks at the top are no huge surprise to folks who follow business books. Gary Hamel, Tom Friedman, Gates, Malcolm Galdwell, and Howard Gardner round out the top five. Below is a list of the gurus with their 2008 rankings and one of their noteworthy books:
| |Name | |2008 Ranking | |Book |
| Gary Hamel | 1 | Competing for The Future |
| Thomas Friedman | 2 | The World is Flat |
| Bill Gates | 3 | Business @ The Speed of Thought |
| Malcolm Galdwell | 4 | Tipping Point |
| Howard Gardner | 5 | Frames of Mind |
| Phillip Kotler | 6 | Marketing Management |
| Robert Reich | 7 | Supercapitalism |
| Daniel Goleman | 8 | Emotional Intelligence |
| Henry Mintzberg | 9 | Mintzberg On Management |
| Stephen Covey | 10 | Seven Habits For Highly Effective People |
| Jeffrey Pfeffer | 11 | The Knowing Doing Gap |
| Peter Senge | 12 | The Fifth Discipline |
| Richard Branson | 13 | Losing My Virginity |
| Michael Porter | 14 | Competitive Strategy |
| Michael Dell | 15 | Direct From Dell |
| Geert Hofstede | 16 | Culture's Consequences |
| Clayton Christensen | 17 | The Innovator's Dilemma |
| Jack Welch | 18 | Winning |
| Tom Peters | 19 | In Search of Excellence |
| Myron Scholes | 20 | --- |
| Ikujiro Nonako | 20 | The Knowledge Creating Company |
There are some gurus listed here who we have not given much attention to. Anybody read much on Hofstede or Nonaka? We will do some research as well.
P.S. Rebecca also has a post on the side conversation going on at wsj.com about the lack of women on the list.
