The Most Influential Management Gurus
Consulting firm CrainerDearlove compiled this list of today's top thinkers.Leadership consulting firm CrainerDearlove surveyed 3,500 people and a panel of experts to determine the 2009 edition of the Thinkers 50, a biennial list of the most influential living management thinkers.
For more about the list, see "The Most Influential Business Thinkers."
| Rank | Name | 2007 Rank | Country | Day Job |
| 1 | C.K. Prahalad | 1 | India/U.S. | University of Michigan Academic |
| 2 | Malcolm Gladwell | 18 | Canada | New Yorker Columnist |
| 3 | Paul Krugman | - | U.S. | Princeton Academic |
| 4 | Steve Jobs | 29 | U.S. | CEO of Apple |
| 5 | W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne | 6 | Korea/U.S. | Insead Academics |
| 6 | Muhammad Yunus | - | Bangladesh | Founder of Grameen Bank, Economist |
| 7 | Bill Gates | 2 | U.S. | Founder of Microsoft, Philanthropist |
| 8 | Richard Branson | 9 | U.K. | Founder of Virgin, Entrepreneur |
| 9 | Philip Kotler | 11 | U.S. | Northwestern University Academic |
| 10 | Gary Hamel | 5 | U.S. | Co-founder Mlab, Consultant |
| 11 | Michael Porter | 4 | U.S. | Harvard Academic |
| 12 | Ratan Tata | - | India | Chairman of Tata |
| 13 | Ram Charan | 22 | India | Executive Coach |
| 14 | Marshall Goldsmith | 34 | U.S. | Executive Coach |
| 15 | S.Kris Gopalakrishnan | - | India | Co-founder and CEO of Infosys |
| 16 | Howard Gardner | 39 | U.S. | Harvard Academic |
| 17 | Jim Collins | 10 | U.S. | Consultant |
| 18 | Lynda Gratton | 19 | U.K. | London Business School Academic |
| 19 | Tom Peters | 7 | U.S. | Consultant |
| 20 | Jack Welch | 8 | U.S. | Retired Executive |
| 21 | Eric Schmidt | - | U.S. | CEO of Google |
| 22 | Joseph Stiglitz | - | U.S. | Columbia Academic |
| 23 | Kjell Nordstrom & Jonas Ridderstrale | 13 | Sweden | Speakers and Academics |
| 24 | Vijay Govindarajan | 23 | India/U.S. | Academic in Residence for GE |
| 25 | Marcus Buckingham | 38 | U.K. | Speaker |
| 26 | Richard D'Aveni | 46 | U.S. | Dartmouth Academic |
| 27 | Rosabeth Moss Kanter | 28 | U.S. | Harvard Academic |
| 28 | Clayton Christensen | 25 | U.S. | Harvard Academic |
| 29 | Stephen Covey | 15 | U.S. | Speaker and Author |
| 30 | Thomas Friedman | 26 | U.S. | New York Times Columnist |
| 31 | David Ulrich | 42 | U.S. | University of Michigan Academic |
| 32 | Roger Martin | - | Canada | Dean of University of Toronto Rotman School |
| 33 | Henry Mintzberg | 16 | Canada | McGill Academic |
| 34 | Daniel Goleman | 37 | U.S. | Author and Consultant |
| 35 | Chris Anderson | - | U.S. | Wired Editor-in-chief |
| 36 | Warren Bennis | 24 | U.S. | University of Southern California Academic |
| 37 | Robert Kaplan & David Norton | 12 | U.S. | Consultants |
| 38 | Jeff Immelt | 31 | U.S. | CEO of General Electric |
| 39 | Don Tapscott | - | Canada | Consultant |
| 40 | Nassim Taleb | - | Lebanon | Academic |
| 41 | John Kotter | 30 | U.S. | Harvard Academic |
| 42 | Niall Ferguson | - | U.K. | Harvard and Oxford Academic |
| 43 | Charles Handy | 14 | Ireland | Author |
| 44 | Rakesh Khurana | 45 | India/U.S. | Harvard Academic |
| 45 | Manfred Kets De Vries | - | Holland | Insead Academic |
| 46 | Tammy Erickson | - | U.S. | Author and Consultant |
| 47 | Costas Markides | 44 | Cyprus | London Business School Academic |
| 48 | Barbara Kellerman | - | U.S. | Harvard Academic |
| 49 | Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones | 32 | U.K. | Academics |
| 50 | Jimmy Wales | - | U.S. | Co-founder of Wikipedia |
