Despite a reputation for putting revenue above profits and the decisive failure of the company's Fire Phone, Amazon's Jeff Bezos has been named Harvard Business Review's best-performing CEO in the world.

This was no popularity contest or mere measure of profit posted over a period of time. The method used to quantify performance has a clear slant towards creating long-term value rather than brand popularity or big returns.

Jeff Bezos commands a fortune of $US58.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Credit:Bloomberg

Here's how HBR worked out the winner: starting with a list of CEOs of all companies on the S&P Global 1200, the publication excluded anybody who had been arrested or convicted of a crime.

Next it disqualified anybody who started as CEO before 1995 (sorry, Warren Buffett) or after April 30, 2012 (sorry, Marissa Mayer).