top 50 thinkers

I have never heard of the the first guy – but they have a podcast listed for him – guess where I am heading

The business leader types are always in the press etc.

The top 12 – I either know a reasonable amount about, or have read their books, or studied them in my Masters of Management (MGSM crica 1998).

Even if you don’t agree with what they say, or the texts are dated, its still very important as manny people are still running on those older models.

I think everyone should understand what Michael Porter has to say, here is an overview. Not that I would start a business based on that – but lots of older companies are purely based on it, with MBA types running those companies. You can then use that knowledge to contrast ideas like ‘blue ocean strategy’ and Seth’s ‘purple cow’.

I might do some more work on:
- referencing which are old/new world thinkers
- which ones I don’t know enough about.

1. C. K. Prahalad Indian management guru
2. Bill Gates Geek-turned-philanthropist
3. Alan Greenspan Ex-Federal Reserve chairman
4. Michael Porter Competitive strategy author
5. Gary Hamel Business strategist
6. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne INSEAD professors and authors of Blue Ocean Strategy
7. Tom Peters In Search of Excellence author
8. Jack Welch Former GE CEO-turned-columnist
9. Richard Branson Iconic British entrepreneur
10. Jim Collins Good to Great author

11. Philip Kotler Kellogg’s marketing guru
12. Robert Kaplan & David Norton The creators of the balanced scorecard
13. Kjell Nordstrom & Jonas Ridderstralle Funky Business duo from Sweden
14. Charles Handy The original portfolio worker
15. Stephen Covey The man with seven successful and highly effective habits
16. Henry Mintzberg Controverisal Canadian management expert
17. Thomas Stewart Editor of Harvard Business Review
18. Malcolm Gladwell Author of The Tipping Point and Blink
19. Lynda Gratton London Business School professor and author of Hot Spots
20. Donald Trump US Apprentice host

21. Scott Adams Creator of Dilbert
22. Ram Charan Co-author of Execution
23. Vijay Govindarajan A Tuck professor and GE’s new chief innovation consultant
24. Warren Bennis Veteran on leadership
25. Clayton Christensen Innovation expert
26. Thomas Friedman Author of The World is Flat
27. Kenichi Ohmae Globalisation guru
28. Rosabeth Moss Kanter Renowned Harvard academic and author
29. Steve Jobs Apple’s iconic business leader
30. John Kotter Leadership and change guru

31. Jeff Immelt Jack Welch’s successor at GE
32. Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones Authentic leaders at London Business School
33. Adrian Slywotsky Heavyweight modern strategist
34. Marshall Goldsmith Coach to the top executives
35. Bill George Another fan of authentic leadership
36. Larry Bossidy Co-author of Execution with Charan (22)
37. Daniel Goleman The father of social and emotional intelligence
38. Marcus Buckingham Top self-help guru
39. Howard Gardner Harvard’s creator of the multiple intelligence concept
40. Edward de Bono Supreme lateral thinker
41. Al Gore Climate change campaigner
42. David Ulrich Human resources expert
43. Seth Godin An insightful marketer
44. Costas Markides Charismatic strategist
45. Rakesh Khurana Harvard thinker
46. Richard D’Aveni Hyper-competition expert
47. Peter Senge Learning organisation guru
48. Chris Argyris The originator of the learning organisation concept
49. Jeffrey Pfeffer Stanford intellectual
50. Chris Zook Bain consultant-turned-author

Charles Kovess provided an inspirational speech on passion. He started provocatively :
“I am a laxative for thinking”

He was larger than life – used an interesting term:
“are you SI or SH ”
- SH being SHitty … you get out of bed … “what do I have to do today?”
- SI being Steve Irwin …. “crikey, who can I help today!”

Focus on helping others invigorates us. For sales people, think of ‘who can we help today’ instead of ‘who can we take money from’.

He discussed a balance of work/fitness/spirit.

I was lucky enough to get his 2 books signed as a souvenir for the day:
“passionate people produce – rekindle your passion and creativity – a blueprint for business people” (possibly the longest title I have seen)
“passionate performance – your key to mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing in business”
When I read them – I’ll let you know what i think.

Peter Switzer - a journalist of note – and runs his own business.

Also publish a book ‘350 ways to improve your business’ – it a review of lots of successful business – and he distills it down to 350 things to do in business (seems odd, why couldnt get it down to a manageable size).

He seems to have interviewed lots of interesting folk.

Michael Hewitt-Gleeson -

He is Australia’s best-selling business author of Software For Your Brain, NewSell and his new
book The X10 Memeplex: Multiply Your Business By Ten! He is the Founder of the School of
Thinking with Edward De Bono in New York in 1979. School of Thinking lessons are exported to
over 40 countries every day and have already reached over 50 million people worldwide since
1979.

I am definately going after these books.

He pushed ‘ CVS to BVS’
- for every Current View of the Situation, there is a Better View of the Situation.
- CVS is about how we perceive what is now – through our past learning, influences, truths
- BVS is about breaking down the past, and seeing a better future

I read it as redefining the now, not through your old well worn comfortable safe frame, but through a different frame that allows interest/challenge/change/risk.

Your Take Out

New ideas are from reframing the current and mundane, and allowing in risk and change.

Instead of seeing a glass half empty – you see a glass that could be altered, contents that could be replaced, or simply a nice drink.

My mum always said I preferred to alter the rules … here Michael is giving me permission to bend the glass. (the Matrix anybody?)