Elon Musk took over Twitter and laid off thousands. The tech world writ large has seen tens of thousands of layoffs this year.
AN MBA NAYSAYER TOPS THE FORTUNE LIST
Not surprisingly, the inaugural winner on this list is Elon Musk, the anti-MBA futurist behind breakthroughs in space travel, solar power, and electric vehicles. To admirers, Musk is the visionary who saved free speech by purchasing X and the technical wizard who can catch a rocket with a robotic arm. To critics, Musk has become a trumpeting sycophant who spends too much time tweeting and not enough time leading. Either way, Musk has positioned himself to be the Henry Ford of the early 21st century, a household name who is tackling the tough problems and re-writing the rules in the process.
With the advent of Artificial Intelligence, Graphics Processing Units and Application Programming Interfaces have become indispensable to operating a business. In this arena, Nvidia has emerged as the dominant player, with a market cap higher than any of the Big A’s – Apple, Alphabet, and Amazon. Not coincidentally, everyone is courting the firm’s CEO and Founder, Jensen Huang, who ranks 2nd on Fortune’s list of the “100 Most Powerful People In Business”. While Microsoft’s market cap has fallen below Nvidia and Apple, its CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella, holds the #3 spot, thanks to the company’s successful investments in ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.
A METHOD WITH A PINCH OF MADNESS
How exactly does Fortune measure power? Here are the six metrics used in the ranking:
* Size of the business the person runs, based on our screen that factors in mid-term
(three-year) and short-term (past 12 months) revenue and profit growth, profitability,
and market value.
* Health of the business, based on trailing 12-month measures of liquidity, operating efficiency, and solvency.
* Innovation: Has the person accomplished something nobody else has and that
competitors followed?
* Influence: How greatly do their words and actions shape the behavior of others?
* Trajectory: Where is the person in the arc of their career?
* Impact: Is this person using their power to make the world a better place?
How are these dimensions scored in an empirical sense? Well, that’s where the methodology becomes a bit dicey. Namely, Fortune stacks all the right metrics, but doesn’t specify the weight that any of them carry. Hence, there are no index scores to show the differences between leaders across these metrics. Without any underlying data, readers can’t be faulted for questioning the legitimacy of how business leaders have been evaluated.
Still, the ranking is a positive first step towards assessing which business leaders are truly consequential in the marketplace – even if readers are left wondering why. That noted, Fortune also specifies exactly who is included in the ranking:
“What you’ll find on this list: leaders from 40 industries, ranging in age from their 30s to their 90s. You’ll come across very recognizable founders, chief executives of great businesses, disrupters, and innovators. What you won’t find: fossilized billionaires who are no longer active in business; nor will you find politicians, regulators, or seconds-in-command.”
Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi (Center) meeting with dignitaries in China.
CHANGING TIMES
Looking for the most diverse candidate on the list? Check out Nicolai Tangen. A trained interrogator by the Norwegian Intelligence Service, Tangen studied at Wharton as an undergrad before moving onto earning master’s degrees in Art History and Social Psychology (not counting a stint in culinary school). Now, he leads Norges Bank Investment Management, with over $1.4 trillion dollars in assets. James Dyson studied art and furniture design before inventing the bagless vacuum cleaner and running the Royal College of Art. And how is this for an odd couple at Netflix, which operates with co-CEOs. Greg Peters studied Physics at Yale University as an undergrad. His other half, Ted Sarandos, dropped out of both Glendale Community College and Arizona State before finding his calling in content development.
The biggest winners on the list? That honor is shared by Thrive Capital’s Josh Kushner and Kerling’s François-Henri Pinault, who both – to borrow an American phrase – “outkicked their coverage.” Despite a Harvard MBA and a $3.8-billion-dollar net worth, Kushner’s greatest achievement is winning the heart of supermodel Karlie Kloss. You could say the same about Pinault, who celebrated his 15-year anniversary to Salma Hayek in 2024.
Alas, the fortunes of business leaders are fleeting. A few years ago, the Fortune list likely would’ve honored the business might of Jack Ma, Michael Dell, and Indra Nooyi – not to mention Sheryl Sandberg, Carlos Brito, and Ajay Banga among MBA grads. Now, all but Dell and Neri have moved on from the roles that gave them such deep acclaim. In the coming years, you can expect Jamie Dimon, Tim Cook, and Brian Moynihan to age off the list. On top of that, you have to wonder how long Elon Musk can run at a breakneck pace while being pulled in so many directions. That’s the real fun of the Fortune “100 Most Powerful People In Business” list. No one knows which leaders will produce the innovations that change how people live and think. There is only one certainty: MBAs will be big contributors to these developments.
To see the Top 100 Business Leaders and the MBAs who comprise the list, go to the next two pages.
DON’T MISS: FORTUNE: BEST MBA ALUMNI NETWORKS
