

It's time to kill off the Dotcom Hero CEO - swombat
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/02/09/its-time-to-kill-off-the-dotcom-hero-ceo/

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rbanffy
I think Mike Arrington has been investing too much in companies with no Hero-
CEO in their teams ;-)

An inspiring leader is an incredibly valuable asset. Just imagine what would
have happened with Apple had Wozniak tried to to it without Jobs.

OTOH, I think a Microsoft with less Gates and more Paul Allen would be an
interesting thing.

I will have some experiments to conduct as soon as time-travel becomes
possible.

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Psyonic
True, but Buffet (I believe) considers companies with Hero-CEO's as dangerous
investments, as they have a single point of failure.

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rbanffy
High return often goes hand in hand with high risk.

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pclark
I think this is false. I think a determined CEO [well, founding team, but the
CEO usually gets the headlines] is the rock solid foundation of any company.
The team and advisors build upon that foundation. The founding team _is_ the
key factor in terms of success.

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jasonlbaptiste
We need WAY more than we already have. Not the fabled press stories, but the
guys+gals that inspire more of us to build world changing products.

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nitrogen
Is there something about British culture that avoids hero figures and prefers
to emphasize the team contribution? Read in a certain context, this article
could be seen as an attempt to discourage differentiation between individuals
based on their levels of ambition, or in other words, to keep the heroes at
bay.

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Psyonic
I'm almost certain there is. It's apparent in most of British culture. I even
read an article recently about different approaches to sports throughout
history that said basically the same thing. The greek/roman tradition was very
hero focused, traditional british sports are very team focused, and american
sports have merged the two, where we have team sports but also have standout
hero's within those teams.

