Apple Inc’s Steve Jobs was named the best-performing chief executive officer by the Harvard Business Review, which praised him for delivering a “whopping” 3,188 percent return to investors during his tenure.
The ranking shows which CEOs of public companies performed best over their entire time in office, the journal’s Web site said. Other technology leaders on the list included former Samsung Electronics Co CEO Yun Jong-yong at No. 2 and Cisco Systems Inc chief John Chambers at No. 4.
Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976 and was ousted in a management coup in 1985, returned in 1997 to lead the then financially ailing company. He has added new versions of the Macintosh personal computer to win buyers, pushed Apple into the digital-media market with the best-selling iPod player and entered the mobile-phone arena with the iPhone.
“Of course shareholder return is not the only measure of performance,” the Boston-based journal said. “But it is the fundamental scorecard for CEOs of public companies.”
After Jobs returned to Apple as CEO, he delivered an industry-adjusted return of 34 percent compounded annually through September, the review wrote. Apple’s market value increased by US$150 billion in that period, the review reported.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose US$2.80 to US$198.23 at 4pm in NASDAQ stock market trading. The shares have more than doubled this year.
Harvard Business Review said it studied an initial list of 1,999 executives from companies based in 33 countries to determine who led firms that outperformed others in the same country and industry. The journal published rankings of the top 50, 100 and 200 CEOs.
To be considered, CEOs must have assumed the job no earlier than January 1995 and no later than December 2007, the magazine said, explaining why prominent US executives including General Electric Co’s Jack Welch, Microsoft Corp’s Bill Gates, Oracle Corp’s Larry Ellison and Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s Warren Buffett were not considered.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique