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Consumers top '50 who matter now' list(Paul Jacobs is at 3rd Place after Sergey Brin and Larry Page )

Press Trust of India / New Delhi July 12, 2006

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=2891

"You! the consumers" top the list of "50 people who matter now" in July issue of Fortune group magazine Business 2.0.


The consumers of the world now matter more than anyone else, says the magazine. "They've long said the customer is always right. But they never really meant it. Now they have no choice".

Among those who have been placed above the emerging middle class in the list, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been ranked second, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is at third place, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch is at fourth, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs at fifth and Genentech's product development president Susan Desmond-Hellmann has been placed at the sixth position.

Companies like Delta Air Lines and T-Mobile are turning to customers to create their ad slogans, while Procter and Gamble and Lego are incorporating consumers' ideas into new products, it added.

The magazine said in its cover story encompassing the top-50 list that the names present in the list were not selected on the basis of fame, net worth, or the accomplishments of yesteryear.

Venture capitalist of Indian-origin Vinod Khosla has grabbed the 33rd position in the list. Khosla is the co-founder of IT giant Sun Microsystems and is considered one of the most influential partners at top venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.

While justifying the seventh rank of emerging middle class, the Business 2.0 magazine quoted a Goldman Sachs study that says that more than 800 million people in China, India, Russia, and Brazil will qualify as middle class in the next decade - meaning they will earn more than $3,000 per year.

This figure represents more than the combined population of the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. "These ambitious, well-educated workers represent both a threat and opportunity for corporate America. On the one hand, thanks to global competition, they're bringing brutal cost pressure to bear on US products.

Yet at the same time, these newly affluent consumers have money to spend - estimated at more than $1 trillion a year and they generally aspire to own American brands and other high-quality imports," it added.

"This emerging class is looking forward to enjoying a more comfortable way of life, and huge opportunities await the global firms that figure out how to deliver that at a price the workers can afford," said the magazine.

In another list of "10 people who don't matter", published in the same issue, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer and Arun Sarin, the high profile Indian origin CEO of UK-based telecom major Vodafone, figure prominently.

"Not everyone with a fancy title really counts" and these are the "people you can safely snub at conferences," said the magazine, which is part of the global media conglomerate CNN-Time Warner group that also publishes Fortune, Money and Fortune Small Business magazines.

This list included names of people whose power had peaked, influence had waned, or whose true importance was overstated, Business 2.0 said.

These are the people who are worth billions of dollars, command big salaries and have impressive titles and among them are the creators of the Sony PlayStation, the DVD, and Linux. While they might be much respected for their past achievements, their best days are behind them, it added.