Saw a lifetime achievement award given last night. Good speeches, decent food and a borderline bizarre biographical video of the recipient.
The one thing that really sticks with me is how there are four or five really prominent CEOs that all ‘grew up’ together in the business. Can’t be a coincidence.
So what’s the explanation? Talent? Sure. Social dynamic of peer competition? Probably. But surely those things are common enough.
The thing that I think has to have been truly special is the culture of their common employer. They are the product of their environment. So what is someone to do who finds himself in a mediocre environment? How does a leader create such an environment? Do all leaders want to create such environments?
The leaders of tomorrow are being groomed at an extraordinary organization somewhere. Almost every other organization is busily destroying or limiting its talent. Why? How?
Not Unreasonable 