One definitive number.
Stabilisation Efficiency reveals whether a leader adds to performance or creates friction, shown here across the FTSE 350.
How Britain’s CEOs measure up.
| Rank | Company and chief executive | Seat difficulty | Stabilisation Efficiency | Load | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Next Simon Wolfson | 4.9 | 0.40 | 2.5 | Star |
| 2 | LondonMetric Property Andrew Jones | 4.8 | 0.40 | 2.4 | Star |
| 3 | Rolls-Royce Tufan Erginbilgic | 7.5 | 0.53 | 4.7 | System Calmer |
| 4 | Endeavour Mining Ian Cockerill | 7.3 | 0.53 | 4.6 | System Calmer |
| 5 | Costain Group Alex Vaughan | 6.3 | 0.53 | 4.0 | System Calmer |
| 6 | Helios Towers Tom Greenwood | 6.2 | 0.53 | 3.9 | System Calmer |
| 7 | Avon Technologies Jos Sclater | 6.1 | 0.53 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 8 | Genus Jorgen Kokke | 5.9 | 0.53 | 3.7 | System Calmer |
| 9 | Galliford Try Holdings Bill Hocking | 5.8 | 0.53 | 3.7 | System Calmer |
| 10 | Paragon Banking Group Nigel Terrington | 5.8 | 0.53 | 3.7 | System Calmer |
| 11 | Weir Group Jon Stanton | 5.6 | 0.53 | 3.5 | System Calmer |
| 12 | Currys Alex Baldock | 5.5 | 0.53 | 3.5 | System Calmer |
| 13 | Informa Stephen A. Carter | 5.5 | 0.53 | 3.5 | System Calmer |
| 14 | Cranswick Adam Couch | 5.4 | 0.53 | 3.4 | System Calmer |
| 15 | Grainger Helen Gordon | 5.2 | 0.53 | 3.3 | System Calmer |
| 16 | Greencore Group Dalton Philips | 5.2 | 0.53 | 3.3 | System Calmer |
| 17 | Morgan Sindall Group John Morgan | 5.2 | 0.53 | 3.3 | System Calmer |
| 18 | RELX Erik Engstrom | 5.2 | 0.53 | 3.3 | System Calmer |
| 19 | IMI Roy Twite | 5.1 | 0.53 | 3.2 | System Calmer |
| 20 | Derwent London Paul Williams | 4.8 | 0.53 | 3.0 | System Calmer |
| 21 | Integrafin Holdings Alex Scott | 4.7 | 0.53 | 3.0 | System Calmer |
| 22 | Premier Foods Alex Whitehouse | 4.7 | 0.53 | 3.0 | System Calmer |
| 23 | DiscoverIE Group Nick Jefferies | 4.4 | 0.53 | 2.8 | System Calmer |
| 24 | Sirius Real Estate Andrew Coombs | 4.4 | 0.53 | 2.8 | System Calmer |
| 25 | Bloomsbury Publishing Nigel Newton | 4.1 | 0.53 | 2.6 | System Calmer |
| 26 | Howden Joinery Andrew Livingston | 4.1 | 0.53 | 2.6 | System Calmer |
| 27 | Softcat Graham Charlton | 4.1 | 0.53 | 2.6 | System Calmer |
| 28 | Games Workshop Kevin Rountree | 3.5 | 0.53 | 2.2 | System Calmer |
| 29 | Law Debenture Corporation Denis Jackson | 3.4 | 0.53 | 2.1 | System Calmer |
| 30 | Anglo American Duncan Wanblad | 7.8 | 0.65 | 5.9 | System Calmer |
| 31 | Babcock International David Lockwood | 7.2 | 0.65 | 5.4 | System Calmer |
| 32 | International Consolidated Airlines Group Luis Gallego | 7.2 | 0.65 | 5.4 | System Calmer |
| 33 | AstraZeneca Pascal Soriot | 7.1 | 0.65 | 5.3 | System Calmer |
| 34 | Metro Bank Holdings Daniel Frumkin | 7.1 | 0.65 | 5.3 | System Calmer |
| 35 | Severn Trent James Jesic | 7.1 | 0.65 | 5.3 | System Calmer |
| 36 | Aviva Amanda Blanc | 6.9 | 0.65 | 5.2 | System Calmer |
| 37 | Prudential Anil Wadhwani | 6.9 | 0.65 | 5.2 | System Calmer |
| 38 | BAE Systems Charles Woodburn | 6.8 | 0.65 | 5.1 | System Calmer |
| 39 | Close Brothers Group Mike Morgan | 6.8 | 0.65 | 5.1 | System Calmer |
| 40 | Serco Anthony Kirby | 6.8 | 0.65 | 5.1 | System Calmer |
| 41 | Vodafone Margherita Della Valle | 6.8 | 0.65 | 5.1 | System Calmer |
| 42 | Melrose Industries Peter Dilnot | 6.7 | 0.65 | 5.0 | System Calmer |
| 43 | TBC Bank Vakhtang Butskhrikidze | 6.7 | 0.65 | 5.0 | System Calmer |
| 44 | FirstGroup Graham Sutherland | 6.6 | 0.65 | 5.0 | System Calmer |
| 45 | Lancashire Holdings Alex Maloney | 6.6 | 0.65 | 5.0 | System Calmer |
| 46 | Lion Finance Group Archil Gachechiladze | 6.4 | 0.65 | 4.8 | System Calmer |
| 47 | Fresnillo Octavio Alvídrez | 6.3 | 0.65 | 4.7 | System Calmer |
| 48 | Funding Circle Lisa Jacobs | 6.1 | 0.65 | 4.6 | System Calmer |
| 49 | Bridgepoint Group Raoul Hughes | 5.9 | 0.65 | 4.4 | System Calmer |
| 50 | Experian Brian Cassin | 5.9 | 0.65 | 4.4 | System Calmer |
| 51 | Pearson Omar Abbosh | 5.8 | 0.65 | 4.4 | System Calmer |
| 52 | Shawbrook Bank Marcelino Castrillo | 5.8 | 0.65 | 4.4 | System Calmer |
| 53 | Tesco Ken Murphy | 5.8 | 0.65 | 4.4 | System Calmer |
| 54 | Atalaya Mining Copper SA Alberto Lavandeira | 5.7 | 0.65 | 4.3 | System Calmer |
| 55 | British Land Simon Carter | 5.7 | 0.65 | 4.3 | System Calmer |
| 56 | Intermediate Capital Group Benoît Durteste | 5.7 | 0.65 | 4.3 | System Calmer |
| 57 | Persimmon Dean Finch | 5.7 | 0.65 | 4.3 | System Calmer |
| 58 | Land Securities Mark Allan | 5.6 | 0.65 | 4.2 | System Calmer |
| 59 | Molten Ventures Ben Wilkinson | 5.6 | 0.65 | 4.2 | System Calmer |
| 60 | AJ Bell Michael Summersgill | 5.5 | 0.65 | 4.1 | System Calmer |
| 61 | Coca-Cola HBC Zoran Bogdanovic | 5.5 | 0.65 | 4.1 | System Calmer |
| 62 | Marks & Spencer Stuart Machin | 5.5 | 0.65 | 4.1 | System Calmer |
| 63 | Smiths Group Roland Carter | 5.5 | 0.65 | 4.1 | System Calmer |
| 64 | Admiral Group Milena Mondini de Focatiis | 5.4 | 0.65 | 4.1 | System Calmer |
| 65 | Trustpilot Adrian Blair | 5.4 | 0.65 | 4.1 | System Calmer |
| 66 | Compass Group Dominic Blakemore | 5.2 | 0.65 | 3.9 | System Calmer |
| 67 | Quilter Steven Levin | 5.2 | 0.65 | 3.9 | System Calmer |
| 68 | Rotork Kiet Huynh | 5.2 | 0.65 | 3.9 | System Calmer |
| 69 | Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Tom Slater | 5.2 | 0.65 | 3.9 | System Calmer |
| 70 | Great Portland Estates Toby Courtauld | 5.1 | 0.65 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 71 | Mitchells & Butlers Phil Urban | 5.1 | 0.65 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 72 | Sage Group Steve Hare | 5.1 | 0.65 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 73 | Segro David Sleath | 5.1 | 0.65 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 74 | AO World John Roberts | 5.0 | 0.65 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 75 | Alfa Financial Software Holdings Andrew Denton | 5.0 | 0.65 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 76 | Elementis Luc van Ravenstein | 5.0 | 0.65 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 77 | Halma Marc Ronchetti | 5.0 | 0.65 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 78 | Hammerson Rob Wilkinson | 5.0 | 0.65 | 3.8 | System Calmer |
| 79 | InterContinental Hotels Group Elie Maalouf | 4.8 | 0.65 | 3.6 | System Calmer |
| 80 | J D Wetherspoon John Hutson | 4.8 | 0.65 | 3.6 | System Calmer |
| 81 | Shaftesbury Capital Ian Hawksworth | 4.7 | 0.65 | 3.5 | System Calmer |
| 82 | XPS Pensions Paul Cuff and Ben Bramhall (Co-CEOs) | 4.7 | 0.65 | 3.5 | System Calmer |
| 83 | Computacenter Mike Norris | 4.6 | 0.65 | 3.5 | System Calmer |
| 84 | Hill & Smith Rutger Helbing | 4.6 | 0.65 | 3.5 | System Calmer |
| 85 | Rosebank Industries Simon Peckham | 4.5 | 0.65 | 3.4 | System Calmer |
| 86 | Gamma Communications Andrew Belshaw | 4.4 | 0.65 | 3.3 | System Calmer |
| 87 | Kainos Group Brendan Mooney | 4.4 | 0.65 | 3.3 | System Calmer |
| 88 | Diploma Johnny Thomson | 4.2 | 0.65 | 3.2 | System Calmer |
| 89 | Johnson Service Group Peter Egan | 4.0 | 0.65 | 3.0 | System Calmer |
| 90 | Applied Nutrition Thomas Ryder | 3.9 | 0.65 | 2.9 | System Calmer |
| 91 | Hollywood Bowl Group Stephen Burns | 3.8 | 0.65 | 2.9 | System Calmer |
| 92 | 4imprint Group Kevin Lyons-Tarr | 3.7 | 0.65 | 2.8 | System Calmer |
| 93 | Barclays C.S. Venkatakrishnan | 7.8 | 0.78 | 6.9 | Stress Absorber |
| 94 | HSBC Georges Elhedery | 7.8 | 0.78 | 6.9 | Stress Absorber |
| 95 | United Utilities Louise Beardmore | 7.4 | 0.78 | 6.5 | Stress Absorber |
| 96 | Shell Wael Sawan | 7.3 | 0.78 | 6.4 | Stress Absorber |
| 97 | NatWest Group Paul Thwaite | 7.1 | 0.78 | 6.2 | Stress Absorber |
| 98 | BT Group Allison Kirkby | 7.0 | 0.78 | 6.2 | Stress Absorber |
| 99 | Ithaca Energy Luciano Vasques | 6.9 | 0.78 | 6.1 | Stress Absorber |
Showing 20 of 99
| Stabilisation Efficiency range | Band | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| ≤ 0.49 | Star | The organisation is visibly calmer than the job would predict. Rare. |
| 0.50–0.74 | System Calmer | The leader is protecting the organisation from the weight of the job. |
| 0.75–0.99 | Stress Absorber | The leader is holding the organisation steady, at or near par. |
| ≥ 1.0 | Under Strain | The organisation is, for now, carrying more than the job alone explains. |
Same seat.
Different leader.
Seat difficulty, times how the leader is running it, gives the pressure the organisation actually carries. In the same job, one leader takes three points of it off the business.
We believe that two questions must be asked about any CEO: does this person make the organisation easier or harder to run, and how do they interact with the specific friction profile of the business? Stabilisation Efficiency (SE) is Corestar’s proprietary metric for answering both, built on the CORE/DUAL™ framework: four failure modes (Doubtful, Uncoordinated, Arrogant, Lethargic) and their positive counterparts (Confident, Orchestrated, Relatable, Energised).
Assess the job
Every seat gets a difficulty score from 0 to 10, set from the state of the business on the day the leader took over and looking back no more than eight years. Six things go into it, weighted in favour of the ones that matter most.
The difficulty score is about the job, never the person in it, and it is filed once and reused, so two candidates for the same role are measured against the same number.
- What happens if it goes wrong? (e.g. recoverable loss, or a threat to viability, safety or the wider system)25
- How volatile is the market?22
- How many powerful groups need satisfying, and how far apart are they?18
- How hard is it to keep the right people?13
- How much pressure is coming from owners, lenders and the balance sheet?12
- How relentless is the calendar?10
Why those six questions?
These are the pressures a leader inherits rather than creates. Anything the leader can change quickly (such as strategy, team, communication) is deliberately left out of the seat price and picked up in the leader’s score. We include the factors a leader cannot change on day one: the stakes, the market, the stakeholders, the talent pool, the capital position, the reporting rhythm. That is the dividing line, and it is why the seat can be priced without reference to who is in it.
Why is consequence severity worth 25 and calendar 10?
The weightings are a judgement. Consequence of failure dominates because it changes the nature of every decision: a leader who can lose money is in a different position from one who can lose lives or take down a system. The weightings were set by that logic, then checked against seats where everyone agrees on the answer (e.g. a water utility under regulatory siege should price higher than a greetings-card retailer). The weightings are our judgement, written down and published, then tested.
Read the organisation
From public evidence gathered over a set window, we ask: is the organisation around this leader calmer or more stressed than a competent boss would produce?
Using our CORE/DUAL™ methodology, we develop a number where 0.90 is par. Below it, the leader is calming the organisation and so making it function more effectively. Above it, the organisation is under strain. The number is built from two readings of the organisation itself, whether it is sure of its future and whether it is pulling in one direction, each scored against written definitions.
- Star
- 0.49 or below. The organisation is visibly calmer than the job would predict. Rare.
- System Calmer
- 0.50 to 0.74. The leader is protecting the organisation from the weight of the job.
- Stress Absorber
- 0.75 to 0.99. The leader is holding the organisation steady, at or near par.
- Under Strain
- 1.0 or above. The organisation is, for now, carrying more than the job alone explains.
Multiply
The difficulty of the job, multiplied by how the leader is running it, gives the load the organisation is actually carrying. We call this the Stress Reading and it is measured on the same 0 to 10 scale as the job.
A leader at par of 0.9 in a seat priced 8 is running an organisation carrying a Stress Reading of 7.2. A leader at 0.53 in the same seat has brought the figure down to 4.2. Try it.
3.0 lighter than a leader at par would leave it (7.2).
How we keep it honest
Every leader is read three times independently from the same evidence and the reads are reconciled. Future reads build on the base we have now developed. Every score carries a confidence band; industry-wide shocks are noted beside the score rather than folded into it; and every score must be able to cite dated public evidence.
What the numbers are not
They are not a judgement of anyone’s character or competence. They are a structured reading of public signals about an organisation, using a published method, at a point in time. They do not predict the share price and they are not investment advice. The full disclaimer is on our legal page; readers should treat every figure as an analytical opinion rather than fact.
Judged on the reality they were handed.
Corestar distinguishes a leader steering through a collapsing market from one who is simply struggling. Because every SE score is environment-adjusted, a candidate who previously managed a troubled operation is judged on the situation they inherited, not against an impossible ideal.
This insight is available for CEOs and for C-Suite candidates.
Questions, answered.
What is Stabilisation Efficiency?
Stabilisation Efficiency (SE) measures a leader's capacity to reduce friction inside an organisation. It is derived from public signals, adjusted for the environment the leader inherited, and independent of share price and other lag indicators.
Does Corestar need access to the company or its management team?
No. Stabilisation Efficiency is derived entirely from public signals and requires no management access, no questionnaires and no footprint inside the target.
How is the SE score calculated?
In three steps: first, the inherent load of the sector and business is measured, so context is never mistaken for the person. Second, what the leader personally brings is isolated: their execution energy, openness to feedback, and impact on alignment. The SE score is the relationship between the two.
Is a leader judged against every other leader on the same terms?
No. Every SE score is environment-adjusted. A candidate who previously managed a troubled operation is judged on the situation they inherited, not against an impossible ideal.