Did you know that on Obama’s 100th day in office his approval rating was at 65% according to a Gallup poll reported by MSNBC? When compared to Presidents who held office throughout the past 40 years, Obama comes in second after Reagan, who marked his 100th day in office with a 68% approval rating.
We were curious to see how corporate leaders fare against current and most recent US leaders according to their respective communities, whether its voters or employees. Using MSNBCs Gallup poll and Glassdoor’s 
CEO ratings, we did some analysis to see how ratings for Obama and the previous ten Presidents on their 100th day in office compared to the 25 top rated CEOs (with more 100 reviews). We discovered that there are 13 CEOs who receive higher approval ratings than Obama. World-famous Apple CEO Steve Jobs takes top spot with a 91% approval rating…perhaps if Obama invented the next iPod he’d be set for a second term!?!
President John F. Kennedy is the only US leader to make it in the top 5 on this list below based on his approval rating on his 100th day in office. And, we see that of this recent list of Presidents, H.W. Bush, Clinton and Ford had the lowest approval ratings at this point in time during their respective tenures.
| Glassdoor Report: Which CEOs have higher ratings than Obama? | |||
| Company Rating | CEO | CEO Approval Rating | |
| Apple | 3.8 | Steve Jobs | 91 |
| Procter & Gamble | 4.1 | A.G. Lafley | 89 |
| 4.0 | Eric E. Schmidt | 88 | |
| Goldman Sachs | 3.7 | Lloyd C. Blankfein | 88 |
| UNITED STATES | – | John F. Kennedy | 83 |
| UNITED STATES | – | Lyndon B. Johnson | 80 |
| Adobe | 4.2 | Shantanu Narayen | 78 |
| Cisco Systems | 3.5 | John T. Chambers | 75 |
| Ernst & Young Global | 3.6 | Jim Turley | 75 |
| UNITED STATES | – | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 73 |
| Intuit | 3.9 | Brad D. Smith | 73 |
| JPMorgan Chase | 3.2 | Jamie Dimon | 72 |
| Amazon.com | 3.3 | Jeff Bezos | 70 |
| UNITED STATES | – | Ronald Reagan | 68 |
| QUALCOMM | 3.6 | Paul E. Jacobs | 68 |
| FedEx | 3.6 | Fred Smith | 67 |
| Ford Motor | 3.0 | Alan R. Mulally | 67 |
| UNITED STATES | – | Barack Obama | 65 |
| American Express | 3.4 | Ken Chenault | 64 |
| Oracle | 3.2 | Larry Ellison | 64 |
| UNITED STATES | – | Jimmy Carter | 63 |
| Best Buy | 3.5 | Brad Anderson | 63 |
| Intel Corporation | 3.5 | Paul S. Otellini | 63 |
| EMC | 3.6 | Joe Tucci | 63 |
| UNITED STATES | – | Richard Nixon | 62 |
| Lockheed Martin | 3.5 | Robert J. Stevens | 62 |
| Morgan Stanley | 3.3 | John J. Mack | 60 |
| Booz Allen Hamilton | 3.7 | Ralph W. Shrader | 60 |
| Accenture | 3.4 | Bill Green | 59 |
| Wells Fargo | 3.4 | John G. Stumpf | 59 |
| UNITED STATES | – | George W. Bush | 58 |
| Boeing | 3.5 | Jim McNerney Jr. | 58 |
| GE | 3.5 | Jeff Immelt | 57 |
| UNITED STATES | – | George H.W. Bush | 56 |
| UNITED STATES | – | Bill Clinton | 55 |
| UNITED STATES | – | Gerald Ford | 48 |
Taking a deeper dive beyond approval ratings, it’s interesting to see the commonalities between the public and the private sector. As we read through recent Apple company reviews, we found many employees commenting in their ‘advice to senior management’ that they just wanted to be heard. For example, an Apple Technical Support Agent writes in “Listen to the folks on the front lines.” Something we’re sure both President Obama and the leaders before him have often heard as well.
And as a final yet important note, we realize running a country is perhaps a bit more difficult than running a corporation, but this does bring up the question: ‘To what extent do ratings signify when it comes to the long term success of leader?’
