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Agenda Setters 2000 omissions: those who missed out

By Lisa Burroughes

Published: Monday 20 March 2000

Silicon.com's Agenda Setters 2000 poll threw out more than a few surprises when naming the men and women who'll be shaping Europe's digital future. But some of the most striking news concerns the people that didn't make it onto the list.

Among the most stark omissions include leaders like Michael Capellas, CEO of Compaq, Robin Saxby, CEO of UK-based chip company ARM and Dick Brown CEO of outsourcing giant EDS. This is indicative of the low number of traditional IT businesses that made it onto the list - Michael Dell, CEO of Dell (5) is there because he revolutionised the way of selling PCs, while Andy Grove chairman of Intel only just made it onto the list at all (48).

Traditional IT businesses didn't rank highly on the AS2000 poll because the panellists felt that Europe's digital future will be shaped more by telecommunications, content and Internet companies. This is why the most surprising omission from the list is Sir Peter Bonfield, CEO of BT, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world today.

Michael Armstrong, chairman and CEO of AT&T (44), Ron Somner, chairman at Deutsche Telekom (29) and Bernie Ebbers, president and CEO of MCI Worldcom (25) are just a few of the top 50 Agenda Setters who come from a telecommunications background. So why is Bonfield not there?

When it came to the BT chief executive, the AS2000 panellists were adamant that it is not the company but the person leading the company that makes an agenda setter (see http://www.silicon.com/a36323 ).

Rene Carayol, former managing director at IPC Electric, argued: "This poll is about the personality not the company, it's about the flair and vision that person brings to the company." And they all agreed that Bonfield is reactionary rather than visionary.

Clive Longbottom, analyst at Strategy Partners, commented: "BT looks at the market in a defensive way - it has a reactionary ostrich approach to everything." He pointed to technologies developed within its research and design unit, BT Labs, that had been held back from commercial rollout allowing others to get in there first.

The only way this will change, Longbottom added, "would be if BT got a new leader".

Carayol believes Bonfield lacks the necessary flair to be one of Europe's great leaders. "With the resources at his finger tips he should be one of the great leaders - but he isn't."
BT declined to comment on the results of the AS2000 poll. However, a spokesman was keen to point out recent announcements the telco has made, particularly in the mobile and wireless market ('BT Cellnet beefs up its Web and WAP strategies' http://www.silicon.com/a36248 ) - a little ironic when you consider that the number one AS2000 spot is held by the boss of rival mobile phone operator, Vodafone - Chris Gent (1).

Agenda Setters 2000 are the top 50 business leaders and technologists from the computer software and hardware industries, fixed and mobile communications, and dot-com successes, as well as the world leaders, financial heavyweights and entrepreneurs who all wield power and influence.

See http://www.silicon.com/agendasetters2000 for all the Agenda Setter 2000 results.