• by August 25, 2005

CHAFED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS -- At a time when the reputation of chief executives seems so crucial to the vitality of corporate leadership, the C-level of the media industry has gotten a D-grade. Asked to rate the attributes of CEOs operating in various parts of the corporate world, the vast majority of respondents to an international survey commissioned by Fast Company magazine deemed the CEOs of media companies to be "ruthless," selfish and generally incompetent. "This should send a loud wake up call to everyone in the business community, government and media," said Fast Company Editor Mark Vamos, whom we observed tightly winding a rather large and loud-looking alarm clock and placing it beside Joe Mansueto, chief executive of Mansueto Ventures, the company that recently acquired Fast Company from Gruner + Jahr.

While the overall reputation of chief executives ranked relatively poorly, media chiefs were among the worst - or depending on your perspective, best - in some very telling categories. Two-thirds of respondents said media chiefs are "ruthless in pursuit of success." Ironically, they were also deemed relatively dispassionate corporate leaders when it came to being "passionate about their work." Worst of all, people think media titans are a bunch of wimps. Only 39 percent believe media bosses have "stamina and perseverance." Apparently, many of them were unfamiliar with the story about Viacom chief Sumner Redstone, who once survived a Boston hotel fire by clinging to a third-floor window with one severely burned hand.

Actually, Redstone did not even rank among the media chiefs to considered examples of "great leadership." In fact, hardly any media people did, unless you consider the greatest leader of all, top-ranking former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, who used to be the boss of NBC. No. 2 was Steve Jobs, whose sort of a media guy, or at least is a guy who has profound impact on the world of media. Interestingly, both Jack and Steve placed ahead of George, W. Bush that is, as being hailed chiefs. Close on Bush's tail were Nelson Mandela, former employee Colin Powell, and our favorite leader: Mahatma Ghandi. Picking up the rear on the top ten were Bill Gates, hizonner Rudolph Guiliani, Abraham Lincoln, and Jesus Christ. In fact, the only pure play media chief to even show up in the top 20 ranking was Harpo Entertainment boss Oprah Winfrey, who ranked behind Winston Churchill and Bill Clinton, but ahead of Tony Blair and Martin Luther King Jr.