Page 284 - Introduction to Business

258 PART 2 Managing Business Behavior

EXHIBIT 7.8
World’s Most Respected Business Leaders, 2003

Rank Name Company Country

1 Bill Gates Microsoft United States
2 Warren Buffet Berkshire Hathaway United States
3 Jack Welch (retired) General Electric United States
4 Carlos Ghosn Nissan Japan
5 Hiroshi Okuda Toyota Japan
6 Michael Dell Dell United States
7 Lou Gerstner (retired) IBM United States
8 Nobuyuki Idei Sony Japan
9 Carly Fiorina Hewlett-Packard United States
10 Jeffrey Immelt General Electric United States
11 Richard Branson Virgin United Kingdom
12 Jurgen Schrempp DaimlerChrysler Germany
13 Steve Jobs Apple United States
14 Wendelin Wiedeking Porsche Germany
15 Takeo Fukui Honda Japan
16 Lindsay Owen-Jones L’Oreal France
17 Sam Walton Wal-Mart United States
18 John Browne British Petroleum United Kingdom
19 Jack Smith (retired) General Motors United States
20 Rupert Murdoch New Corporation Australia
21 Michael Eisner Disney United States
22 Jong Yong Yun Samsung South Korea
23 Alan Greenspan Federal Reserve United States
24 Marco Tronchetti Provera Pirelli Italy
25 William Ford Ford United States
Source: FT/PwC,”World’s Most Respected Companies Report,” Financial Times, January 20, 2004.

stance if leaders and their organizations are to be respected. Bill Gates received
praise and respect for “coming out of nowhere” and “creating one of the best-
managed companies in the world” (see Exhibit 7.9 on p. 259). He is also praised for
creating a dominating company in the midst of international antitrust regulations
and respected for his charitable and philanthropic activities. Jack Welch, who
retired in 2002 and later ran into personal problems that revealed the generous
retirement perks GE’s board had awarded him, is remembered for his ability to
drive up shareholder wealth through a ruthless, results-driven corporate culture
and his skill in training great managers. The survey attributes Mr. Buffett’s rise to
second place to “his skepticism about the dotcom world, in which he did not invest,
and the chief executive’s increasing appreciation of investment values—in particu-
lar, the importance he places on the quality of the managers in whose companies
he invests.” Leadership style is influenced by the traits of managers as well as the
circumstances surrounding the company that is being managed.
In general, leadership styles fall within a spectrum that ranges from autocratic
style at one end to free-rein style on the other end with participative, or democratic,
style falling in between. The fourth style of leadership is the contingency style,
which adopts the three styles on the basis of the business environment faced. These
four leadership styles are summarized in Exhibit 7.10 (on p. 260).

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