The change in MVA from one point to another is the amount of wealth creation or destruction during that period. Chief Executive and Stern Stewart have ranked CEOs on the basis of the change in MVA over the period each has been in office. However, because MVA is a dollar measure rather than a rate of return, simply using the change in absolute MVA would be unfair. CEOs of the very largest companies would tend to wind up at the top or bottom of the ranking largely due to size alone. Morgan, by the way, ranked No. 40 at the end of 1998 while Chambers was No. 44.
Comparisons remain imperfect, of course.
For one thing, the chief executives in the ranking have tenures that vary from just one year to more than 30. And the results do show that tenure pays off. Of the top 100 CEOs in the ranking, only 11 had been in office less than five years while 25 had been at the helm for two decades or longer. The accounting treatment of acquisitions can also skew the MVA calculation. Aware of this problem, Stern Stewart routinely corrects it when making computations for its consulting clients.