Among the chief executives of the world, few had a harder task last year than Fujio Mitarai. The CEO of the copier, printer, and camera maker Canon Inc. (CAJ
) not only had to deal with a deepening global recession and the fallout from the events of September 11, but he also had to sell in a home market, Japan, where every barometer of economic health was falling. Yet since taking over as CEO in 1995, Mitarai has made the tough decisions, focusing on his most profitable products and shutting down underperforming divisions. The result: a jump in net income last year of 23%.
That's the kind of grit and savvy that BusinessWeek was looking for in choosing this year's 25 Top Managers. For the last few years, says editor Susan Berfield, who coordinated the project, "a company's stock price was the measure of a CEO's success. This year, we also looked for managers who were best at navigating the global downturn, or who showed real crisis-management skills after September 11."
The search for this special class of managers was worldwide in scope. Correspondents from our 9 bureaus in the U.S. and 12 in Europe, Asia, and Latin America sought out the CEOs who have done the most to adapt their companies to a fast-changing environment. We applied the same performance benchmarks to managers in Taiwan or Germany as we do for those in the U.S. For 2001, six non-U.S. managers, including Mitarai, made the grade. Others include John Browne of London-based BP PLC (BP
), who is admired as a pacesetter in the oil industry; Barry Lam of the Taiwanese laptop manufacturer Quanta Computer Inc., who extended his company's clout as a contract manufacturer in one of the toughest electronics markets in years; and Daniel Vasella of Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NVS
), who is seeing his turnaround efforts finally bear fruit. They join other Asian and European executives who have earned a spot on the list in years past, such as Jorma Ollila of Nokia (NOK
), Christopher Gent of Vodafone Group (VOD
), and Nobuyuki Idei of Sony (SNE
).
It's not just the top 25 managers who are scrutinized. Our special report includes sections on Managers to Watch and on 2001's Most Promising Entrepreneurs. These sections are global, too. Among the entries: French luxury goods purveyor Bernard Arnault of LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton (LVMHY
), and Stelios Haji-Ioannou, whose startup incubator easyGroup launched some of Europe's hottest companies.
It wouldn't be sporting, of course, to ignore the fact that some managers once lionized by the press have stumbled. Hence our section on The Fallen, which includes figures from the most prominent crash-and-burn stories of 2001. Among them: Jeffrey K. Skilling, whose trading and energy company Enron Corp. (ENE
) fell to earth; and Jacques A. Nasser, the bold Australian-born manager whose missteps as CEO of Ford Motor Co. (F
) led to his ouster.
Our Top Managers issue is the culmination of our weekly coverage. In our cover stories, news sections, and features we analyze companies and CEOs from around the world. In special features like Asia's Stars and Europe's Stars, we highlight the top managers and other leaders of key economies outside the U.S. This issue represents our pick of the best of the best. Let's hope their talents will be on full display in the tough year ahead.
Michael S. Serrill
Senior Editor--International
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Copyright 2002 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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