Forbes magazine has just released their annual list of The World’s Most Powerful People for 2013 and we were curious to see where the captains of industry rank among heads of state, politicians, autocrats and philanthropists. This year’s Most Powerful designation went to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he climbed one spot above U.S. President Barack Obama who was last year’s Most Powerful.
Forbes magazine has just released their annual list of The World’s Most Powerful People for 2013 and we were curious to see where the captains of industry rank among heads of state, politicians, autocrats and philanthropists. This year’s Most Powerful designation went to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he climbed one spot above U.S. President Barack Obama who was last year’s Most Powerful.
The Forbes list profiles 72 of the most powerful from the nearly 7.2 billion people on earth. That comes out to one power broker for every 100 million people on our planet. Forbes uses four dimensions to measure their power as follows:
Power over a large number of people.
The first dimension of measurement is that the candidates have to have power or authority over a lot of people, such as the CEO of the top private employer in the world – Wal-Mart Stores. CEO Michael Duke (No. 10 on the list) has leadership responsibility for 2.1 million employees around the world.
Financial resources controlled.
The second dimension of measurement is the amount of financial resources controlled by each of the 72 power brokers. World leaders are ranked by the GDP of their country while CEOs are measured by their company’s assets and revenues. Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu (No. 12 on the list) was actually measured by his personal net worth.
Distribution of power in multiple spheres.
The Forbes list then goes on to measure how the 72 on the list project their power and influence. Microsoft’s Bill Gates (No. 6 on the list) is a good example of a business leader that is powerful in multiple spheres. Gates’ billionaire status gives him financial power, he’s considered a major philanthropist and he’s the chairman of the world’s top computer software company.
Active use of power.
The final measure relates to whether candidates for the list actively use their power. Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin scored the highest in this category due to the frequency of his shows of strength at home and abroad.
So how did the world’s business leaders fare among this list of 72? Here they are…
Rank Name & Title Company Age #10 Michael Duke – CEO Wal-Mart Stores 63 #12 Carlos Slim Helu – Honorary Chairman America Movil 73 #13 Warren Buffett – CEO Berkshire Hathaway 83 #15 Jeff Bezos – CEO Amazon.com 49 #16 Rex Tillerson – CEO Exxon Mobil 61 #17 Sergey Brin – Cofounder / Director Google 40 ________of Special Projects #17 Larry Page – CEO Google 40 #19 Timothy Cook – CEO Apple 52 #22 Jamie Dimon – CEO JPMorgan Chase 57 #24 Mark Zuckerberg – Cofounder / CEO Facebook 29 #25 Jeffrey Immelt – CEO General Electric 57 #27 Lloyd Blankfein – CEO Goldman Sachs Group 59 #30 Li Ka-shing – Chairman Hutchison Whampoa 85 #31 Charles Koch – CEO Koch Industries 77 #31 David Koch – Executive Vice President Koch Industries 73 #33 Rupert Murdoch – Chairman & CEO News Corp 82 #38 Mukesh Ambani – Chairman Reliance Industries 56 #39 Haruhiko Kuroda – Governor Bank of Japan 69 #41 Lee Kun-Hee – Chairman Samsung Group 71 #42 Larry Fink – Cofounder & CEO BlackRock 60 #44 Akio Toyoda – CEO Toyota Motor Company 57 #45 Masayoshi Son – CEO Softbank 56 #47 Elon Musk – Founder & CEO Space Exploration 42 _____________ Technologies Corporation #48 Terry Gou – CEO Hon Hai Precision 63 #49 Martin Winterkorn – Chairman Volkswagen Group 66 #51 Lakshmi Mittal – Chairman & CEO ArcelorMittal 63 #54 Bernard Arnault – Chairman & CEO LVMH Moet Hennessy 64 _____ Louis Vuitton #55 Bill Gross – Cofounder Pacific Investment 69 ____________________ Management Company #56 Virginia Rometty – CEO IBM 55 #58 Larry Ellison – CEO Oracle 69 #60 Igor Sechin – Chairman Rosneft 53 #61 Robin Li – Founder & CEO Baidu 44 #63 Alisher Usmanov – Founder Metalloinvest 60 #64 Aliko Dangote – CEO Dangote Group 56 #65 Reid Hoffman – Partner Greylock Partners 46 #70 Yngve Slyngstad – CEO Norges Bank Investment 50 _____________________ Management So who’s in your Rolodex or among your LinkedIn connections?