What an Interesting Ranking

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama tops the Forbes Global 2010 list of the world’s most powerful women. Was she elected due to her status as the first lady, or just by being “Michelle” herself?

Michelle was the first U.S. first lady to top the Forbes lists in recent years, and defeated four-time winner Angela Merkel. Previously, American women who made it to the top 10 were either secretary of state or prominent financial figures. This time around, Forbes explains that their assessment is based less on traditional titles and roles, and more on creative influence and entrepreneurship.

Then again, there remains doubt: Is exposure and prestige equal to creative influence and entrepreneurship?

Forbes has many lists throughout the year. Comparing all these lists, some rankings are indeed very interesting. For example, in Forbes’ most powerful people list (regardless of gender) and Forbes’ most powerful women list last year, Hilary ranked seventeenth on the first list, i.e. the second top woman on the list, but she was not even among the top 10 of the latter list.

What does this mean? Hillary excels among male colleagues, but her competitiveness means nothing among women? Even though Forbes’ lists are merely a media stunt over credibility, Forbes has definitely succeeded as a pioneer in introducing global rankings across all industries in the world.

In 1982, against all odds, the Forbes chief editor, Malcolm, employed a senior editor to prepare a list of America’s 400 richest people. The list of rich men made a hit, and they subsequently introduced a wide variety of global rankings, which have become the Forbes trademark and logo.

It is said that a rich man on the Forbes list once forgot to bring his passport when traveling abroad. He then took the Forbes magazine, where his photo happened to be printed on the front page, as his identity card. And he went through customs.

Also because of Forbes, the rich families in China have surfaced. And that’s how we know those attention-grabbing, second-generation, rich and young billionaires.

Forbes is obviously a significant catalyst; even if those on the list are not really among the top 10 in any industry in the world, they will be eventually after being selected for the list.