The A List - Management Hall Of Fame - Management Gurus

IIM Management Society recognizes and honors the world's top management gurus and most influential management thinkers. A team of IIM researchers conducted this study. Researchers' criteria for accepting nominations included the importance of nominee's work, media coverage, recognition within the consulting, academia and international management community. The published list of names contains the elites of the management profession, the managers who impacted the way we think about and do business. Their strategies and work lessons empowers the current and future generation of executives. In our opinion, every government leader and CEO needs to know about these gurus and learn from them. The list is provided in alphabetical order (by first name). It does not give a quantitative ranking of the nominees. The following is a list of the world's most notable management gurus and their most important works: 

1. Abraham Maslow - Humanistic Approach to Management 
2. Adam Smith - Political Economy and Enlightened Self-Interest
3. Akio Morita - Sony Inc. - Innovation as Global Enterprise
4. Al Saud, Al Waleed Bin Talal - Prince of International Investments
5. Alfred Sloan  - General Motors & The Executive Organization
6. Alvin Toffler - The Futurologist
7. Andrew Carnegie - King of U.S. Steel & Philanthropy 
8. Andrew Grove - Intel - The Brain of PCs
9. Arthur Rock - Venture Capital & The Silicon Valley
10. Bill Gates - Microsoft Founder - The Greatest Entrepreneur of All Times
11. Dale Carnegie -  How to Win Friends and Influence People
12. Daniel Coleman - Emotional Intelligence (EI)
13. David Sarnoff - RCA - A Media Pioneer
14. Douglas McGregor - Theory X and Theory Y - Managing & Leading People
15. Eiji Toyoda - Toyota! A Global Engineering Success
16. Frank Woolworth - Price-Driven Retail Chain Pioneer
17. Frederick Taylor - Father of Scientific Management
18. Geert Hofstede - Cultural Diversity for International Management
19. George Eastman - Eastman Kodak - The Portable Camera
20. Gorge Soros - The Super-guru of International Investment
21. Henri Fayol - Father of Administrative Management  School
22. Henry Ford - Ford Motors - A Pioneering Automobile "Enterprise Engineer" 
23. Henry Gantt - The Gantt Chart & Project Management 
24. Henry Luce - Time, Fortune, Life & Sports Illustrated Magazines
25. Igor Ansoff - Father of Corporate Strategy
26. Ikujiro Nonaka - The Knowledge-creating Company.
27. Ingvar Kamprad - Global King Of Furniture (IKEA)
28. Jeffery Bezos - Amazon.com - Pioneering Global E-Commerce
29. John Rockefeller - Father of US Oil Industry
30. Joseph Juran -  Quality Management
31. J. P. Morgan -  A Financial Giant
32. Konosuke Matsushita  - Japan Industrial Giant
33. Lee Iacocca - Chrysler Turnaround Icon
34. Martha Stewart - Multi-billion Dollar Life Style!
35. Michael Dell - Dell Computers - Youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 Ever
36. Michael Porter - Father of Competitive Strategy
37. Peter Drucker - Modern Management Guru
38. Ray Kroc - McDonald's - The Global Fast Food Business Model
39. Reginald Revans - Action Learning
40. Rupert Murdoch - A Global Media Emperor
41. Samuel Walton - Wal-Mart A Retail Empire
42. Scott Adams  - Management Worst Practices!
43. Soichiro Honda - Honda - The Fastest Motorcycle In The World
44. Theodore Vail - AT&T - A Telecom Giant
45. Thomas Edison - General Electric GE - The Business of Invention
46. Thomas Watson - IBM - International Business Machines
47. Vincent Bollore - Most Successful Corporate Raider
48. Walter Disney - Disney World - Every Child's Dream
49. Warren Bennis - Leadership Guru
50. Warren Buffet - The Oracle of Investing

Notes on the list: 

• According to Mr. Med Yones, Editor-in-Chief, no "elite" list is all inclusive. There are many management gurus who do not have equal media or research exposure. The nomination for A List is open worldwide. To participate in the 2007-2008 survey, please visit.
• For corrections or feedback please contact us

Other "A List" survey results (2006-2007)

• Management Hall of Fame
• World's Most Respected Companies
• World's Most Respected CEOs
• World Most Respected Management Thinkers
• World's Most Respected Management Consultants
• World's Most Respected Management Professors/Educators
• World's Most Respected Management Books
  • Best Management Books
  • Best Investing Books
  • Best of Harvard Business Review Books
  • Best Self-Development Books
  • Best Spiritual Books
  • Best Management Comic Books

Methodology & Ranking Criteria

The survey methodology provides the ability to validate nominations and allows insights into the nominees' critical success factors.

• Public stakeholders can nominate their most respected companies and their leaders.

• Voters are then asked to give the reasons for their nominations, thus providing valuable insight into what key factors drive the success of these nominees. Questions are presented in free-form and open-ended formats.

• Further research is conducted to validate the entries using sales figures, business/investment analysts ratings, competitive benchmarking and market impact as expressed in the global media.

• After verification and acceptance of the nomination, the input is then statistically analyzed taking into consideration the geographic region, the relationship with the company, the number of votes, the listed reasons and the order in which they are listed.

• When two or more companies score equally on overall ratings (reach a tie) IIM editors refer to the number of votes.

In a nutshell, the public nominates, IIM editors validate the nominations, and the number votes determines the respectability and ranking.

IIM Executive Education and Management Training

• IIM experts research, develop and disseminate management-best-practices and learned-lessons from the leading management gurus. For advanced executive education and training opportunities, please refer to IIM Management Training Courses