I don't get no respect

The Financial Times London edition today contains one of those vaguely nauseating supplements on "The World's Most Respected Companies." GE comes tops, and coincidentally, there is a full page ad from GE on the facing page. Guess how many telcos turn up in this list of 45 great companies? That's right, zero. And in the Most Respected Business Leaders category, only Carlos Slim represents the sector. The most ludicrous section is a table of the top ten individuals from history or today to be chosen for a "dream" board. Jack Welch comes first, of course, and Jesus Christ (!) will be disappointed to hear that he comes fifth behind Carlos Ghosn of Nissan. At least he can content himself with the news that he beat Napoleon. I don't know how seriously managements actually take this sort of stuff (probably not very), but this must be galling stuff for the likes of Vodafone, the only consumer-focused telco with a truly global footprint and a $183bn market cap to match.