About

Assembling the 50

Over the last two years, visitors to the Thinkers 50 website (www.thinkers50.com) have been providing their answers. The Thinkers 50 team also emailed hundreds of business people, consultants, academics and MBA students throughout the world. After sifting through more than 1,200 votes a list of contenders was compiled.

The result was a short-list of 80 names. A Google search was then undertaken to establish the number of references for each of those on the list, and factored into the ranking. Finally, they were assessed against 10 criteria.

Each guru was marked against the following criteria on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high).

The Measures

1. Originality of Ideas
Are the ideas and examples used by the thinker original?

2. Practicality of Ideas
Have the ideas promoted by the thinker been implemented in organizations? And, has the implementation been successful?

3. Presentation Style
How proficient is the thinker at presenting his/her ideas orally?

4. Written Communication
How proficient is the thinker at presenting his/her ideas in writing?

5. Loyalty of Followers
How committed are the thinker's disciples to spreading the message and putting it to work?

6. Business Sense
Do they practice what they preach in their own business?

7. International Outlook
How international are they in outlook and thinking?

8. Rigor of Research
How well researched are their books and presentations?

9. Impact of Ideas
Have their ideas had an impact on the way people manage or think about management?

10. Guru Factor
The clincher: are they, for better or worse, guru material by your definition and expectation?