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Network World

2003 CEO Powerometer

On shaky ground

Our annual reader survey reveals a decline in vendor CEO power - with one man the exception.

By Julie Bort, Network World
December 22, 2003 12:12 AM ET

. What's this?

	2003 Power Rating

	Power winners

	Power losers

	How we did it

	Company Powerometer

While Cisco CEO John Chambers kept his hold on the No. 1 spot in this year's annual Powerometer survey (his since 2000), the real power story is Dell's Michael Dell. He stands out as the only CEO who maintained his year-over-year Power Rating,while climbing the ranks.

Dell leapfrogged IBM CEO Sam Palmisano to grab the No. 4 rank, up from No. 6 in 2002. Dell always runs a tight ship, and network executives have faith that the man will continue to succeed.

But other bright spots were rare, although eight CEOs (40%) did climb in rank, determined by slotting the Power Ratings from high to low. (For details on how we conducted the Powerometer survey, see "How we did it".) Six (30%) declined in rank, while three (15%) held steady. Three had no comparative 2002 results, having taken over as CEO this year.

HP CEO Carly Fiorina and Nortel CEO Frank Dunn join Dell as the biggest climbers, each moving up two spots. After finessing the Compaq acquisition, Fiorina consolidated her might when former Compaq CEO Michael Capellas left his position as president of the merged company to take on MCI's leadership.

In 2001, as leader of Compaq, Capellas ranked No. 17, with a Power Rating of 55.2. This year, as MCI CEO, he landed at No. 20, his Power Rating at 36.

IBM's Palmisano is an odd power duck. He fell in rank and received a lower Power Rating despite keeping financials strong and development efforts focused at the No. 1 Network World 200 company. Respondents nicked him almost two full Power Rating points - placing him at No. 5 compared with No. 4 in 2002. His camera-shy stance is keeping him a virtual unknown, even a year after taking over as chairman (and about a year and a half after becoming CEO) of one of the world's most-watched companies.

Sun CEO Scott McNealy, hardly an unknown, also saw his power dwindle in 2003. This no doubt results from Sun's continued financial doldrums, thanks to rising competition from less-expensive Linux machines, among other threats.

With corporate scandals still fresh in their minds, respondents remain gun shy on CEO power. "Got power?" respondents seemed to ask. "Prove it.

2003 POWER RATING
In our annual Powerometer survey, readers get a chance to rate CEO power on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the most powerful. In their minds, the power of all but one CEO has declined this year.

Rank			Power Rating
2003	2002	CEO	2003	2002	Change	% change
1	1	Cisco’s John Chambers	69.7	72.1	-2.4	-3.4%
2	2	Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer	68.5	69.4	-0.9	-1.3%
3	3	Intel’s Craig Barrett	59.4	63.5	-4.1	-6.4%
4	6	Dell’s Michael Dell	58.1	58.1	0	0
5	4	IBM’s Sam Palmisano	57.9	59.8	-1.9	-3.1%
6	7	Oracle’s Larry Ellison	53.5	57.7	-4.2	-7.3%
7	9	HP’s Carly Fiorina	52.6	53.5	-0.9	-1.6%
8	N/A*	AT&T’s David Dorman	50.2	N/A	N/A	N/A
9	5	Sun’s Scott McNealy	49.0	58.4	-9.4	-16.1%
10	11	Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg	47.0	50.0	-3.0	-6.0%
11	13	Nortel’s Frank Dunn	46.8	49.7	-2.9	-5.8%
12	10	3Com’s Bruce Claflin	44.7	50.7	-6.0	-11.9%
13	12	EMC’s Joe Tucci	43.9	49.7	-5.8	-11.6%
14	15	SBC’s Ed Whitacre	43.3	46.5	-3.2	-6.9%
15	N/A*	Sprint’s Gary Forsee	42.2	N/A	N/A	N/A
16	14	CA’s Sanjay Kumar	42.2	48.0	-5.8	-12.1%
17	18	BellSouth’s Duane Ackerman	41.7	44.4	-2.7	-6.0%
18	19	Qwest’s Richard Notebaert	37.4	39.2	-1.8	-4.6%
19	17	Novell’s Jack Messman	37.4	44.9	-7.5	-16.7%
20	N/A*	MCI’s Michael Capellas	36.0	N/A	N/A	N/A

N/A = new to list this year; was not CEO of the company when last year’s survey was taken.
* C. Michael Armstrong ranked No. 8 in 2002
*** John Sidgmore ranked No. 20 in 2002
** Bill Esrey ranked No. 16 in 2002
Power Ratings, rounded to the nearest tenth, were rounded to the nearest hundredth to break ties. Forsee’s rating: 42.23; Kumar’s, 42.18; Notebaert’s, 37.39; and Messman’s 37.37.

POWER WINNERS
Several CEOs climbed the ranks, but Dell CEO Michael Dell did so while maintaining his Power Rating from 2002.

Rank		CEO	Rank increase over 2002
2003	2002	CEO	Rank increase over 2002
4	6	Dell’s Michael Dell	2
7	9	HP’s Carly Fiorina	2
11	13	Nortel’s Frank Dunn	2
6	7	Oracle’s Larry Ellison	1
10	11	Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg	1
14	15	SBC’s Ed Whitacre	1

POWER LOSERS
All CEOs (save Dell’s Michael Dell) experienced a decline in their Power Ratings, yet these six also lost rank.

Rank		CEO	Change in 2003 Power Rating	Rank decrease over 2002
2003	2002	CEO	Change in 2003 Power Rating	Rank decrease over 2002
19	17	Novell’s Jack Messman	-16.7%	2
9	5	Sun’s Scott McNealy	-16.1%	4
16	14	CA’s Sanjay Kumar	-12.1%	2
12	10	3Com’s Bruce Claflin	-11.9%	2
13	12	EMC’s Joe Tucci	-11.6%	1
5	4	IBM’s Sam Palmisano	-3.1%	1