“We dropped eight CEOs from our 2010 list to make room for new members, reflecting weakening financial performance, rising business risk and retirement. Those dropped include John Chambers of Cisco Systems, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazardis — the duo that leads Research In Motion — and the head of Asian battery maker BYD, Chuan-fu Wan,” Andrew Bary reports for Barron’s.
“Not all the products that our CEOs make are so well known. ARM Holdings, the British semiconductor-design company, is hardly a household name, but its chips are found in most cellphones and in Apple’s red-hot iPad 2,” Bary reports. “Under CEO Warren East, ARM, founded in a turkey barn, has developed powerful chips that sip, rather than guzzle, electricity — ideal for battery-powered devices. ARM has outmaneuvered mighty Intel, whose initiatives outside server computers and PCs have gained little traction. Who says there are no innovative tech firms in Europe?”
Bary reports, “There’s little doubt that the world’s most valuable CEO is Steve Jobs of Apple, who has turned an also-ran PC maker into the second-most-valuable company in the U.S. stock market. Apple’s market value stands at $315 billion, behind only ExxonMobil. Jobs has done it through a series of hit products that have become must-have items with millions of consumers around the world. A visionary who disdains market research, Jobs has a knack for anticipating what consumers want well before they know it themselves. Apple shareholders are hoping that Jobs, who took a health-related leave of absence earlier this year, remains a guiding force at Apple for years to come.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Attribution: MacNN. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]