Success can breed success, but as management strategist and author Jim Collins demonstrated in Good to Great (and in his subsequent volume written with Morten Hansen Great by Choice) too often companies begin to think that things will be better because they have been good in the past.

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He had no choice but to do the unthinkable -- close the farm started by his great-grandfather.

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Clearly, the "great man" theory of history will always be ripe for debate, but as shown by a choice reading of CEOs the presence of a strong, charismatic leader can hold more sway in business than elsewhere.

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