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It's coming on the end of the year, so our desk is overflowing with media-generated lists, ranking everything from books to films to Hollywood hotties to a commodity much closer to our hearts — CEOs.
The parade began with Corporate Leader's debut issue last month, which gave us "The Best CEOs in America"; was followed by ranking-obsessed Fortune's "Power 25 List"; and included the newly list-happy U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Leaders." Wading through all these random rankings — accompanied by breathless profiles and overly serious explanations of bogus methodologies — left us yearning for last year's version of Fortune's Power List, when the magazine wisely "decided to eliminate rankings" and provide instead photo portraits of 25 big machers, unencumbered by any hype-infected text. Indeed, this is the first time in a while that Fortune produced a traditional ranking for its Power List, having taken a strange detour in 2005 to publish "25 People We Envy Most" in its place. As ridiculous as that list was — and with names like Sean Hannity, Burt Rutan (who?) and Jake Burton (who again?), it was pretty ridiculous — Fortune's impulse to eschew a traditional ranking of the powerful was a good one. Just take a look at its 2004 offering to see why. Coming in at No. 7 was recently deposed Citigroup Inc. CEO Chuck Prince, who was lauded for showing "great skill running the world's largest financial services company." Ousted Merrill Lynch & Co. chief Stan O'Neal came in at No. 20 and was hailed as a "visionary." Of course, their departures don't negate the fact that these two wielded power back in 2004, when they headed major institutions. But their current situations show what an amorphous concept power can be. Perhaps no one knows this better than the folks over at Corporate Leader, the brand new sister pub to those two glossy odes to highly conspicuous consumption, Dealmaker and Trader Monthly magazines. As The New York Times recently pointed out, four of the chieftains that made Corporate Leader's list of 100 best CEOs were (or were about to be) gone from their jobs by the time the magazine debuted on Nov. 20. The quartet consisted of O'Neal (No. 54), Prince (No. 94), Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons (No. 92) and Gary Forsee of Sprint Nextel Corp. (No. 96.). But the spinmeisters over at publisher Doubledown Media were undeterred. "Like heat-seeking missiles, those surveyed took aim at underperforming leaders," its press release hyping the list explained. "In fact, three who ranked below the halfway mark have already resigned or announced their pending resignations." We and the Times counted four, but that's beside the point. What's interesting here is Doubledown's suggestion that anyone on the list "below the halfway mark" is "underperforming." If that's the case, this isn't the 100 best CEOs in America; it's 50 of the best and 50 apparent laggards. Perhaps that wouldn't sell as many magazines or ads. So who is at the top of the lists? Steve Jobs took the No. 1 spot at both Fortune and Corporate Leader, while Arnold Schwarzenegger topped U.S. News' America's Best Leaders ranking, which was extremely light on Fortune 500 CEOs (there were only two), as it sought 18 figures who "motivate and inspire." Wall Street was represented by Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s Lloyd Blankfein, (No. 3 at Fortune, No. 2 at Corporate Leader), who seemed to be feted mostly for avoiding the subprime mess that cost O'Neal and Prince their jobs. Blackstone Group LP CEO Steve Schwarzman is also on the Fortune list (No. 19), which isn't surprising since back in February, the magazine crowned him "The New King of Wall Street." Still, it's hard to square the Schwarzman who is portrayed in the press — the tax-loophole-loving billionaire who threw himself an over-the-top birthday party and likes stone crabs and servants who wear rubber-soled shoes — with Fortune's description of the new powermongers. "Hot power" — the coercive kind Fortune says it celebrated in the 1980s, when it ran articles on America's toughest bosses — is over, the magazine informs. It's been replaced by "cool power," the collaborative kind used to "bring people to share our values and help us pursue common goals." That's fine with us. But when did Schwarzman, a former hottie, cool down? Besides, he's no Burt Rutan. — Yvette Kantrow Categories Deal Video
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