L'esperto di strategia d'impresa C.K. Prahalad, il sociologo canadese Malcolm Gladwell e l'economista statunitense Paul Krugman. Sono i primi tre dei 50 guru del 2009. “Thinkers 50” è considerata la guida biennale ufficiale dei personaggi che hanno influenzato lo sviluppo del management.

NEW RANKING OF BUSINESS GURUS ANNOUNCED: INDIAN PROFESSOR CK PRAHALAD TOPS THINKERS 50
Who is the most influential living management thinker? The Thinkers 50 2009 provides the answer. Created by Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer and published in The (London) Times, it is the biennial guide to which thinkers and ideas are in – and which have been consigned to business history.
No. 1. The Guru at the Top of the Pyramid: According to the all-new Thinkers 50, the most influential living management guru in the world is CK Prahalad of Michigan Business School. Prahalad tops the list for the second time running. “CK Prahalad’s influence on the business world is immense,” says Des Dearlove, co-creator of the global ranking with Stuart Crainer. “He coined the term core competencies in the 1990s, which set the strategy agenda for a generation of managers. More recently, his work on the Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid has shown the role business can play in tackling world poverty.” “It’s a nice spot to be in,” Professor Prahalad acknowledged, on hearing that he had been ranked as the world’s most influential business thinker. “But it is also a big responsibility. I think of it as an obligation rather than a privilege”.
No. 2. Glad All Over: Also riding high in the 2009 ranking is Canadian-born journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell. “With his best-selling books The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, Gladwell has elevated story telling to an insightful art form,” notes Stuart Crainer. “He is a compellingly original distiller of wisdom”.
No. 3. Dismal Success: Returning to the Thinkers 50 is Paul Krugman. Straight in at No. 3, the Nobel Prize-winning economist makes an impressive re-entry and, together with fellow Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz at 22, underlines the growing influence of the dismal science among managers. In tough times people look to economists for answers.
No. 4. iThinker: At No.4, with his highest ever appearance in the ranking, is Apple boss Steve Jobs. Jobs, who placed 29 in 2007, steals a march on longtime techie rival, Bill Gates, who falls 5 places to No. 7.
No. 5. Blue Ribbon: Sailing up the ranking, too, are INSEAD-based Korean, W Chan Kim, and American Renée Mauborgne. The continuing success of their best-selling book, Blue Ocean Strategy (over 2 million copies sold) lifts them up one spot to No. 5 – five places above strategy rival Gary Hamel.
No. 6. Micro Manager: Muhammad Yunus is another Thinkers 50 newcomer. The Bangladeshi champion of micro credit and author of Banker to the Poor is the second Nobel Laureate to make the top 10 in 2009.
Trend spotting
So what are the other big stories to come out of the new ranking?
Indian think: If the 2007 ranking signaled that the Indian thinkers were coming, the 2009 ranking confirms they have arrived. CK Prahalad is one of six Indian management thinkers to make the new ranking. Joining Prahalad are Ratan Tata, CEO of Tata Industries (12), CEO coach Ram Charan (13), Infosys co-founder S. (Kris) Gopalakrishnan (15) Vijay Govindarajan of the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College (24); and Harvard’s Rakesh Khurana.
Gurus go global: The 2009 Thinkers 50 is the most international ever. No fewer than 11 different nationalities are represented – including one Lebanese, one Korean and one Bangladeshi. North Americans still dominate, but in 2009 18 non-Americans make the ranking – compared with just 10 in 2001.
Canadian clique: Remarkably, the other nationality punching well above its demographic weight is Canada, with four thinkers in the mix. Malcolm Gladwell, Roger Martin, Don Tapscott and Henry Mintzberg all come from north of the border, and up-and-coming gurus Syd Finkelstein and Ray Fisman are also Canadian.
Great to be good: In these straitened times, caring capitalists are the new heroes, with CK Prahalad’s focus on serving consumers at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Bill Gates’ conversion to creative capitalism, and Muhammad Yunus’ advocacy of micro credit all placing them in the top 10.
Femme thinkers: Women are still under-represented in the business guru world, but are making inroads. With five female thinkers in the top 50, the women make their biggest impact yet on the ranking. At joint 5th, (with writing partner Chan Kim) INSEAD’s Renée Mauborgne is the highest placed woman ever. Also moving up are Lynda Gratton of London Business School, up from 19 to 18; and Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter – up to 27 from 28. Newcomers in 2009 are Tammy Erickson at 46 and Barbara Kellerman at 48.
Changing of the guru guard: The new ranking also signals a passing of the baton to a new generation of gurus, with a massive 26 percent of the top 50 entering the ranking for the first time. (Only 19 of the original 50 from 2001 still make the cut.) Fading but not forgotten is the evergreen Tom Peters, who drops 12 places to number 19. Jim Collins, author of Great to Good and keen mountaineer also slips from his summit down to 17. Henry Mintzberg, arch critic of the MBA falls 17 places to number 33. Leadership luminaries Warren Bennis and John Kotter are down 12 and 11 places, respectively, at 36 and 41; while Irish-born Charles Handy slips back from 14 to 43.
New voices: There are 14 newcomers to this year’s ranking: Paul Krugman, Mohammad Yunus, Ratan Tata, S. (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, Eric Schmidt, Joseph Stiglitz, Roger Martin, Chris Anderson, Manfred Kets de Vries, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Niall Ferguson, Tammy Erikson, Barbara Kellerman, and Jimmy Wales.
Comeback kids: The Thinkers 50 welcomes back Paul Krugman and Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital, who was in the original 2001 ranking, and points to the growing influence of the digital generation.
“Interesting times demand interesting ideas,” say Crainer and Dearlove. “There is a real sense that how we view business and how business is practiced is changing. The ideas of the people featured in the Thinkers 50 make a difference on the factory floor and in the C-suites of the world. In business ideas matter because they can be the difference between mediocre performance and competitive advantage”.
THINKERS 50 2009
(2007 ranking in brackets)
1: CK PRAHALAD (1)
2: Malcolm GLADWELL (18)
3: Paul KRUGMAN (-)
4: Steve JOBS (29) 5: W. Chan KIM & Renée MAUBORGNE (6)
6: Muhammad YUNUS (-)
7: Bill GATES (2)
8: Richard BRANSON (9)
9: Philip KOTLER (11)
10: Gary HAMEL (5)
11: Michael PORTER (4)
12: Ratan TATA (-)
13: Ram CHARAN (22)
14: Marshall GOLDSMITH (34)
15: S. (Kris) GOPALAKRISHNAN (-)
16: Howard GARDNER (39)
17: Jim COLLINS (10)
18: Lynda GRATTON (19)
19: Tom PETERS (7)
20: Jack WELCH (8)
21: Eric SCHMIDT (-)
22: Joseph STIGLITZ (-)
23: Kjell NORDSTROM & Jonas RIDDERSTRALE (13)
24: Vijay GOVINDARAJAN (23)
25: Marcus BUCKINGHAM (38)
26: Richard D’AVENI (46)
27: Rosabeth MOSS KANTER (28)
28: Clayton CHRISTENSEN (25)
29: Stephen COVEY (15)
30: Thomas FRIEDMAN (26)
31: David ULRICH (42)
32: Roger MARTIN (-)
33: Henry MINTZBERG (16)
34: Daniel GOLEMAN (37)
35: Chris ANDERSON (-)
36: Warren BENNIS (24)
37: Robert KAPLAN & David NORTON (12)
38: Jeff IMMELT (31)
39: Don TAPSCOTT (-)
40: Nassim Nicholas TALEB (-)
41: John KOTTER (30)
42: Niall FERGUSON (-)
43: Charles HANDY (14)
44: Rakesh KHURANA (45)
45: Manfred KETS DE VRIES (-)
46: Tammy ERICKSON (-)
47: Costas MARKIDES (44)
48: Barbara KELLERMAN (-)
49: Rob GOFFEE & Gareth JONES (32)
50: Jimmy WALES (-)