Johannesburg - Nelson Mandela, Roger Federer, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Richard Branson are the world’s most visible leaders and public personalities according to a new study by Reputation Institute. South Africa’s Nelson Mandela topped the list with tennis champion, Roger Federer, second on the 2011 Leader RepTrak™, a new global study of the general public, developed by Reputation Institute to assess the reputations of the world’s most visible leaders and public personalities in politics, business, culture and sports. Reputation Institute created a list of 54 of the world’s most visible leaders and public personalities in politics, business, culture, and sports. 51 055 members of the general public in 25 countries were asked to assess these individuals using Reputation Institute’s RepTrak™ Pulse to measure their reputation on a 0-100 point scale based on four attributes: The degree to which a person is liked, respected, admired, and trusted. The sample of respondents was balanced to each country’s population on age, gender, and region. Fielding took place in April-May 2011 and was powered by SSI International.
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OFMMandela’s powerful story of offender to beloved first president of South Africa has made him a symbol of the worldwide struggle against injustice and a continuing source of inspiration to people the world over. The number two ranking of Federer, the 5-time US Open tennis champion, has him admired as much for his on-court results as for his off-court charitable efforts. Like Mandela, Federer has a well-known passion for South Africa and its people, due no doubt to his mother’s heritage. Business visionaries ranked high on the list, and includes the philanthropic duo of Gates and Buffet, the entrepreneurial duo of Branson and Jobs, and India’s Ratan Tata. Social entrepreneurs Oprah Winfrey and Bono regularly call public attention to global causes for which they earn high praise from the public.
At the other extreme, the public gave its weakest ratings to leaders deemed “anti-democratic.” Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator, took last place in the study. Many western Politicians also rated poorly with the public. In contrast to Federer, trophy-rich golfer Tiger Woods once the darling of the media, sits near the end of the list.
“The results of Reputation Institute’s study confirm that people respect leaders that participate in philanthropic activities outside of their own celebrity. The public’s top two on our list, Mandela and Federer, have emotional ties to South Africa, and donate both time and money to the betterment of the region and its people. They get praise for their efforts,” says Reputation Institute Chairman, Dr. Charles Fombrun.
The results of the study are comparable by gender, age, and region, with minor differences. Older respondents tend to be more critical, as are Latin Americans. Men and women generally rate public personalities similarly, with minor exceptions: Men favor sports figures more so than women (who were especially critical of Tiger Woods); women find corporate leaders more appealing than do men; they also tend to rate female leaders more harshly than men. Perhaps the broadest lesson from the study is that the public tends to be critical of leaders.
