May 11, 2013

Standing Solid at Number OneChurchill Is the Top Pick of the World’s CEOs

This past April the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers announced the results of a survey that it conducted with 1,330 Chief Exexcutive Officers of companies in 68 different countries.  One question read as follows: “As a leader can you give an example from literature or history where someone exhibited good leadership?”  Winston Churchill emerged as the number-one choice of the world’s business leaders.  Asked in a follow-up, “what did you admire about their actions?” one CEO replied: “He explained the reality of what people faced, and he mobilized them to deal with it.”

This was the 16th annual survey conducted by the accounting firm.  The survey included 167 CEOs of American companies.  PWC broke down the results of its question about most-admired leader into Global and US results; Churchill topped both lists.  Coming in second and third respectively among the choices of American business leaders were Presidents Lincoln and Reagan.  The late Steve Jobs of Apple computers ranked second among the global community with Mahatma Ghandi taking third.

Official Survey ResultsThe results come as no surprise to The Churchill Centre where business leaders make up a large portion of our membership. The Centre will be sending copies of its recently published Churchill Companion to the CEOs that participated in the PricewaterhouseCoopers survey.