Accenture Names Top Business Thinkers

Compiled ByJill Jusko In a move sure to raise debate, Accenture's Institute for Strategic Change has compiled a list of the top 50 living business gurus. Topping the list is Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business School professor, strategy expert and author of "Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors." "The list is sure to cause some discussion around the water coolers of the business world," says Tom Davenport, a partner in the global consulting firm and director of the Institute. "Yet it does give an objective, quantitative ranking of those individuals in the business arena whose ideas, writings and teachings are forefront in the public consciousness." Davenport says that for the purpose of the study, business intellectuals were defined as influential thinkers and writers on business management topics. The rankings were based on three criteria: Web site hits using the Google search engine, media mentions using three Lexis/Nexus databases from April 1997 to April 2002, and scholarly citations in the Science Citation and Social Sciences Citation indices from 1997 to 2002. Rounding out the top 10 are:

Tom Peters, management consultant and author of "In Search of Excellence: Lessons From America's Best-Run Companies";

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and a professor at Brandeis University;

Peter Drucker, business philosopher and consultant for 60 years, widely recognized as the father of modern management;

Peter Senge, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization";

Gary Becker, 1992 Nobel Prize winner in economics and a professor at the University of Chicago;

Gary Hamel, chairman of Strategos consulting firm and author of "Leading the Revolution";

Alvin Toffler, author of "Future Shock";

Hal Varian, dean of the School of Information Management & Systems at the University of California at Berkeley and author of "Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy";

Daniel Goleman, journalist and author of "Emotional Intelligence."