Top Managers in Italy: Rankings, Criteria and Selection
The published Italian manager rankings measure media presence at large listed groups. They are useful reading and a poor hiring tool. This page explains the methodologies, then sets out the criteria that actually predict whether a manager will deliver inside your company.
What each ranking actually measures
Why visibility and performance diverge
- Visibility rewards the size of the company, not the difficulty of the job
- A manager who fixes a 40 million euro business quietly will never enter a media ranking
- Sentiment moves on news events, including events the manager did not cause
- Nobody in a ranking is described as available, so the list cannot be acted on
- The mid-market, where the majority of Italian employment sits, is almost absent
Six criteria that do predict delivery
- Owned number: has the person carried a profit and loss, not advised on one
- Repeatability: the same result achieved in more than one company and more than one market
- Speed: evidence of a measurable change inside two quarters, not two years
- Cross-border: proof of operating in at least two business cultures
- Exit: a clean handover, with the organisation still performing afterwards
- References: named former chairs, owners or investors willing to speak
The criteria applied to one profile
https://niklaslindahl.com/rankings/top-managers-italy