23. Kevin Roberts

As a passionate rugby fan, Kevin Roberts appreciates the importance of being a good team player, but when it comes to business, he believes that another group identity is more foundational: family. The marketing maverick—remembered for machine-gunning a Coca-Cola vending machine in one of his presentations while leading rival Pepsi Cola in Canada—sees the family providing the foundational values of commitment, loyalty, trust, and respect on which Procter & Gamble (P&G) has built its business and reputation.

“What I learned at P&G was the importance of family; that family beats any other sort of communal noun that you can think of,” he says. “It beats a team, it beats a tribe, it beats a community, it beats an institution—if you can feel like a family, then you will win. I learned that family values mean demanding, yet caring, and it’s the caring part that’s terribly important. P&G cares about their people. Samir Hawwa told me early on, ‘Promote three things—promote your business, promote your people, promote your boss, and you’ll do really well.’ And that’s really been at the heart of my leadership beliefs ever since.”