Thought UK CEOs were in the vanguard of global business leadership? Think again

Only seven heads of British companies make the Harvard Business Review’s list of the world’s best-performing chief executives, says Chris Blackhurst

Erik Engstrom of Relx is our highest representative at 11 (RELX)

Just how good are our corporate titans, really? We like to think they’re masters of their craft, leaders in their field, potential world-beaters who can propel our businesses forward. At least, that’s how we’re encouraged to view them.

But how do they compare alongside their peers from across the globe? The current Harvard Business Review provides a clue, and pretty sobering it is too. It’s their annual ranking of the world’s best-performing 100 CEOs, and in all, only seven heads of British companies make the line-up, which is dominated by bosses from the United States.

There are none from the UK in the top 10, which is headed by Jensen Huang of graphics processor giant Nvidia. At 11th, comes our highest representative, Erik Engstrom of Relx. Simon Borrows of 3i is at 22. Then comes a long gap before Greg Case of Aon (73), Jean-Sebastien Jacques of RTZ (76), Pascal Soriot from AstraZeneca (77), Simon Wolfson of Next (78), and Diageo’s Ivan Menezes​ (84).