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b'What is the most important factor in identifying companies that will be successful over time? Answer: the senior leadership team. Quality leaders should be offended when they are referred to as \\u201cmanagers\\u201d. Effective senior leadership teams don\\u2019t \\u201cmanage\\u201d \\u2013 they \\u201clead\\u201d. \\n\\xa0\\nQuality senior leadership teams have a greater influence on a given company\\u2019s success (however you want to define it) than any other one variable. \\n\\xa0\\nEnd market you say? Quality teams will capitalize on strong end-markets and have the courage to exit weak end-markets even when it may be politically difficult to do so. \\n\\xa0\\nQuality teams set the culture. Quality teams insist on hiring quality people and won\\u2019t sacrifice quality to satisfy a growth expectation. \\n\\xa0\\nQuality teams will push back on venture board members who have overly aggressive growth expectations that will jeopardize the company\\u2019s foundational core. \\n\\xa0\\nQuality leadership teams will pursue new, exciting product initiatives that have promise \\u2013 even when data points and milestones are few during the early days of that product\\u2019s life cycle. Even when doing so may mean cannibalizing the core and pissing off investors. \\n\\xa0\\nNobody said it was easy.'