The most creative and successful innovators in the US for 2019 have been revealed by Forbes , and unsurprisingly Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk top the list.
As the respective founders of Amazon and Tesla, the two business minds collectively generated over US$1 trillion in the past 10 years. But what is perhaps more surprising than the mammoth figure is the number of women included on the list.
Of the 100 innovators ranked, Ross Stores CEO Barbara Rentler was the only female, coming in at number 75.
Forbes defended its decision claiming “women are poorly represented at the top of the largest corporations”.
Through measuring quantitative reputation, social capital and publicly traded track record, Forbes specialists assessed the top 100 creatives in America for 2019 – a method that was seemingly advantageous to men where “women never had much of a chance here”.
Both Bezos and Musk were ranked equal first on the list of 100 most innovative US leaders for 2019.
While the innovators are responsible for shaping the future, whether it’s through revolutionising transport or transforming ecommerce, they lead their teams in contrasting styles.
Bezos is known to be a customer-first innovator by incorporating the best approaches to meet and exceed customer expectations. Adversely, Musk takes a technology-first path where he believes he knows where the market is heading, and ultimately knows better than the consumer.
Following Bezos and Musk, Mark Zuckerberg was ranked third on the US list.
The renowned Facebook co-founder and CEO may only be 35 years old, but his young age hasn’t stopped his pioneering success. Despite the social media network reportedly making more than US$40 billion in revenue in 2017, Zuckerberg only takes a US$1 salary.
Although the duo may have been easily predicted to top the list, a group of experts came together to analyse a plethora of visionaries.
