Bloomberg has printed a list highlighting the five “worst CEOs of 2012”, and Zynga's CEO Mark Pincus has made it to number four.
The list is written by a professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. Sydney Finkelstein has written books like Why Smart Executives Fail, so he seems like the guy who would know what makes a bad CEO, and he's written a list like this each year for the past three. Last year, Finkelstein included the chief executives of Netflix and Research of Motion, both companies which have recently been booted from the NASDAQ-100 along with EA, which suggests he does know a thing or two about which companies to keep an eye on.
As for Zynga, Finkelstein's inclusion of its CEO on this particular list is due to various factors including its dramatic fall in stock value (-75%) and the loss of some of its major members of staff. Finkelstein says Pincus has made “rookie mistakes”, not least of which is being so reliant on Facebook for its revenue.
Given what's going on with Zynga right now, are you surprised that its CEO has made it to this list? Or can you think of another gaming giant who's more deserving of the title?
