Many leaders or who cannot meet the ranking will say "What so important about ranking, the most important is our performance" BUT if the performance is not good the ranking usually not good and the universities are not popular and good students are not interested. All in chain systems. Like sugar, ants, insectivorous, carnivorous and top predators. SO in current situation ranking is important.

https://my.news.yahoo.com/no-malaysian-university-among-top-160102341.html