No. 32 Michael H Jordan, CEO, EDS
Last year's position: Not placed
Why? Divining the future of IT services
EDS has endured its share of difficulties in recent years with major contracts running into trouble, financial difficulties, job cuts and even a "junk" credit rating.
Many predicted EDS would be bought out but instead Michael H Jordan came out of retirement to tackle the situation head-on. He set about renegotiating or extricating EDS from failing contracts and selling off redundant or unprofitable subsidiaries.
Jordan's strategy worked and EDS underwent a resurgence - including landing a hefty multi-billion dollar outsourcing contract with General Motors earlier this year.
But it's not just leading this miraculous transformation that earns Jordan the title of Agenda Setter. He foresaw that success for IT services companies would mean focusing on either commodity or specialised offerings but not both - and has set EDS on the commodity path, leaving rivals such as Accenture and IBM playing catch-up.
Take a walk down memory lane - and find out who made the Agenda Setters poll over the years:
"Ray Ozzie is a radical change force for Microsoft. He is moving them in a very different direction."
--Richard Sykes, Agenda Setters panellist
"My observation is that [kids today] are far more networked and open than any other generation we have ever seen."
--Peter Cochrane, Agenda Setters panellist
The world's most powerful women Forbes.com
Smart 50 - Asia's best users of IT ZDNet Asia
Chron 500 - The San Francisco Bay Area's top public companies San Francisco Chronicle
The 50 people who matter now Business 2.0
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