Sublime

AT&T’s savior was Theodore Vail, who became its president in 1907, just a few years after Millikan’s friend Frank Jewett joined the company.11 In appearance, Vail seemed almost a caricature of a Gilded Age executive: Rotund and jowly, with a white walrus mustache, round spectacles, and a sweep of silver hair, he carried forth a magisterial conf

Brigham Young, Bill Gore, Malcolm Gladwell, and Robin Dunbar may have been onto something. For typical real-world values of the control parameters there is, in fact, a sudden change in incentives around the magic number 150. At that size, the balance of forces in the tug-of-war changes, and the system suddenly snaps from favoring a focus on loonsho

When Avery took over leadership of Crown, he found that the new PET bottles were making big inroads into the market for soft drink containers. Product changeover costs in plastics were much lower than in metal containers, so the basis of Crown’s traditional advantage was eroding.

Character and behavior are inextricable.

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Delivering short-term results versus investing in long-term performance. Taking time to gather facts and do analyses versus moving fast to capture opportunities. Respecting the past and creating continuity vs. disrupting the future. Maximizing value for shareholders versus delivering impact for other stakeholders. Having confidence to make tough ca

BILL GATES Cofounder, Microsoft; Cochair, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Disney, John Andrew Rice, and Steve Jobs not only headed Great Groups, they found their own greatness in them. As Howard Gardner points out, Oppenheimer showed no great administrative ability before or after the Manhattan Project. And yet when the world needed him, he was able to rally inner resources that probably surprised even himself. Inevitabl