New Delhi, Feb 5 (IANS) Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, was ranked 1st among all Indians and 2nd globally in the Brand Guardianship Index 2024 compiled by Brand Finance.

The Brand Guardianship Index is a global recognition of CEOs, who are building business value in a sustainable manner, by balancing the needs of all stakeholders -- employees, investors, and the wider society.

In the 2023 ranking as well Mukesh Ambani was placed at world’s number 2 position.

This year Ambani was ranked number 1 in Brand Guardianship Index 2024 among the ‘Diversified’ conglomerates.

Ambani was ranked ahead of global majors like Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Apple’s Tim Cook and Tesla’s Elon Musk, and fellow Indians such as N. Chandrasekaran of Tata Group, Anish Shah of the Mahindra Group among many others.

Brand Finance’s survey gave Mukesh Ambani a BGI score of 80.3, just below 81.6 of Huateng Ma of China based Tencent.

Brand Finance constructs a balanced scorecard of measures designed to identify the factors that best capture the ability of CEOs to act as a steward of their company’s brand and steward long term value.

This year’s analysis reveals that ESG has become the single most important driving force in determining CEO reputation.

Being regarded as ‘a sustainability champion’ accounts for 14 per cent of variation in reputation scores, ahead of factors such as perceived trustworthiness (12.5 per cent), having ‘a strong strategy and vision’ and global recognition.

According to Brand Finance, the role of a brand guardian is to build brand and business value. It is a global recognition of the CEOs, who forge win-win partnerships to build a sustainable future, redefining the role of a CEO from ultracompetitive entrepreneur to collaborative diplomat. The Brand Guardianship Index celebrates the CEOs, who balance the needs of commercial success, long-term brand building and personal reputation management.

The Brand Finance follows a balanced scorecard of measures that capture the ability of a CEO to act as the guardian of their company’s brand and a steward of long-term shareholder value.

Brand Guardianship Index includes ‘Perception’ factors, which reflect current perceptions, ‘Performance’ factors, which reflect the tangible results of these perceptions, and ‘Promotion’ factors, which support future perceptions and performance.

Recently, Jio’ -- a relatively new brand -- was recognized as the strongest brand from India, in the latest report ‘Global 500 – 2024’ published by Brand Finance, ahead of multi-decade old Indian brands like LIC and SBI. Jio had topped India’s strong brands in Brand Finance’s 2023 rankings as well.