2008 Best Companies for Leaders

The 2008 Best Companies for Leaders survey is conducted by management consultancy Hay Group and Chief Executive Magazine. The survey seeks to identify the top 20 best-in class companies as well as the attributes that make these companies known for great leadership.  The Hay Group/Chief Executive survey reveals that the top 20 best companies for leaders make leadership development a priority.

“When asked what organizations value the most in leaders, 83 percent of the best in class organizations as compared to others said “execution.” Organizations value leaders who can achieve results through others. These leaders create a climate in which people know exactly what is expected of them. In ideal times, the survey results showed, people value authoritative and democratic styles of leadership in comparison to the other four styles of coercive, affiliative, pacesetting and coaching. In tough economic times, employees’ desire more communication and clarity around goals. They want their leaders to become more visible and to be leading from the front. Typical leadership styles which accomplish this include authoritative with some coercive and pacesetting when needed.”

Some of the survey finding for 2008 include the following:

• 65 percent of the top twenty companies on the list hold senior managers accountable for commitments versus 36 percent for all others.
• 63 percent create a sense of purpose for employees by communicating values versus 43 percent for all other companies.
• 45 percent honor leaders within the organization versus 32 percent for all other companies.
• 62 percent of respondents indicated that matrixed roles are increasing in their organizations.
• 70 percent of the top 20 companies say they have a formal process to identify individuals for leadership roles, versus 37 percent of all companies.
• 65 percent of companies say that talent management is driven by a clear business strategy versus 39 percent of all other companies.
• 55 percent have formal programs to accelerate leader development versus 34 percent of all other companies.

2008 Best Companies for Leaders

1. 3M Company (15)
2. Procter & Gamble (2)
3. General Electric (1)
4. Coca-Cola (5)
5. HSBC Holdings (14)
6. ABB
7. Southwest Airlines
8. IBM
9. Hewlett-Packard (10)
10. PepsiCo (7)
11. Nokia
12. Accenture Ltd.
13. FedEx
14. Infosys Technologies Ltd.
15. McDonald’s Corporation (18)
16. Caterpillar
17. American Express
18. Cisco Systems
19. Oracle
20. Intel Corporation

_{Numbers shown in ( ) indicate rankings from 2007}

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Survey, Research, Management, Business, Talent, Development

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Tagged as: Research