Wipro Ltd has been named the top company for leaders in Asia Pacific by Hewitt. Four other companies -- Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, L&T and ITC -- rank among Hewitt's Top 10 Companies for Leaders in Asia Pacific-2003.

Wipro is followed by Tata Steel at the second spot and Australian Gas Light Company in the third position. While ICICI Bank is ranked fifth, L&T is ranked sixth and ITC ninth.

The list includes two companies from Australia -- Australian Gas Light Company and Sinclair Knight Merz, which has been placed at the tenth spot. While Singapore has two entries -- Asia Pacific Breweries Limited (seventh) and Sing Tel Ltd (eighth) --, Hong Kong has one, CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd (fourth).

Hewitt studied 203 companies in seven markets in Asia Pacific, as part of its global Top Companies for Leaders study, which is separately administered in the United States and Europe.

The Asia Pacific markets included in the study were Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

Hewitt in its study has found that CEOs of all the top 10 companies were actively involved in fostering leadership talent, whereas only CEOs of 77 per cent of the remaining study companies did that.

Marc Effron the global practice leader for Leadership Consulting Practice at Hewitt observes that the financial analysis of the data validates that CEO involvement is much higher in financially successful firms and this meant that the CEO spent at least 25 per cent or more of their time building leadership.

This process becomes more effective when senior management takes up the accountability of developing their best leaders, adds Effron.