The Top 50 Business Brains

The Thinkers 50

Update 2011: The Thinkers 2011 list
Update 2009: The Thinkers 2009 list

Update: November 2006. Just in: The Thinkers 50: The World's Most Influential Business Writers and Leaders, Ciaran Parker (BUSREF HC29.P37 2006). This book is based on the data provided below.

Since 2001 the founders of Suntop Media, Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove, have been attempting to determine who were the most important and influential business thinkers. Using google results along with criteria such as "originality of ideas", "practicality of ideas", "loyalty of followers" and "impact of ideas" they produced the following results for 2005. A book with profiles of these thinkers is scheduled for June 2006. There are also lists for 2003 and 2001.
Crainer is the author of many books, including this one which he co-authored with Ivey graduate Julian Birkinshaw: Leadership the Sven-Goren Eriksson Way. For additional books by Crainer held in the collections of the Western Libraries see here. For more details about the selection criteria and the earlier rankings see The Thinkers 50 - www.thinkers50.com.
For additional Information about Suntop Media and their "Thought-Leader" venture see - www.suntopmedia.com. The "Thought Leadership Series" is also presented on the European Foundation for Management Development site where there is more commentary about the Top 50. See efmd.org
The list below has been copied from the Thinkers 50 - 2005 site.

1. Michael Porter (2)* - Harvard strategy specialist
2. Bill Gates (20) - Founder of Microsoft
3. C. K. Prahalad (12) -LBS strategy man
4. Tom Peters (3) - Leadership consultant
5. Jack Welch (8) - GE's ex-CEO and celebrity
6. Jim Collins (10) - Author of Good to Great
7. Philip Kotler (6) - Kellogg's marketing guru
8. Henry Mintzberg (7) - Promotes Managers not MBAs
9. Kjell Nordstrom & Jonas Ridderstrale (21) - Funky Business exponents
10. Charles Handy (5) - British portfolio worker
11. Richard Branson (34) - Entrepreneur and Virgin flyer
12. Scott Adams (27) - creator of Dilbert
13. Thomas Stewart (37) - Intellectual Capital author
14. Gary Hamel (4)- Strategy consultant
15. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne (31) - Blue Ocean Strategy duo
16. Kenichi Ohmae (19) - Japanese strategy master
17. Patrick Dixon (46) - Futurist and change guru
18. Stephen Covey (16) - Knows The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
19. Rosabeth Moss Kanter (9) - Harvard's change manager
20. Edward De Bono (35) - Lateral thinker and author
21. Clayton Christensen (22) - Harvard's new-tech guru
22. Robert Kaplan & David Norton (15) - Balanced scorecard creators
23. Peter Senge (14) - Learning organisation inventor
24. Ram Charan (-) - Coach to the CEOs
25. Fons Trompenaars (50) - Intercultural management man
26. Russ Ackoff (-) - Specialist of systems thinking
27. Warren Bennis (13) - Humanist leadership guru
28. Chris Argyris (18) - Action and learning guru
29. Michael Dell (33) - Dell Computer's founder
30. Vijay Govindarajan (-) - Tuck's strategy innovator
31. Malcolm Gladwell (-) - Blink and Tipping Point guru
32. Manfred Kets De Vries (43) - Psychoanalytic economist
33. Rakesh Khurana (-) - Harvard labour market guru
34. Lynda Gratton (41) - LBS people and strategy guru
35. Alan Greenspan (42) - Head of US Federal Reserve
36. Edgar Schein (17) - MIT organisational psychologist
37. Ricardo Semler (36) - Radical CEO of Semco
38. Don Peppers (48) - Customer relationship man
39. Paul Krugman (40) - Economist and columnist
40. Jeff Bezos (39) - Amazon's main man
41. Andy Grove (26) - One of the Intel founders
42. Daniel Goleman (29) - Emotional intelligence inventor
43. Leif Edvinsson (-) - Professor of intellectual capital
44. James Champy (25) - Advocate of re-engineering
45. Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones (-) - Authentic leaders
46. Naomi Klein (30) (left) - No Logo author
47. Geert Hofstede (47) - Cultural expert
48. Larry Bossidy (-) - Chair of Honeywell
49. Costas Markides (-) - LBS strategy professor
50. Geoffrey Moore (38) - Hi-tech marketing man
* 2003 ranking in brackets

2009 List
The list below has been copied from The Thinkers 50 - 2009 site.

1. CK Prahalad

2. Malcolm Gladwell

3. Paul Krugman

4. Steve Jobs

5. W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne

6. Muhammad Yunus

7. Bill Gates

8. Richard Branson

9. Philip Kotler - see BIO

10. Gary Hamel

11. Michael Porter - see BIO