Courageous leaders staff key positions with top talent. But selecting top talent is difficult.

Experience is good news and bad news. Experience causes patterns to get set in our mind, and for most people those patterns become stubborn rules of behavior. On the other hand, experience can also greatly accelerate a learning curve and help avoid subtle industry “potholes.”

It sounds easy, but managers tend to fog this up. They overestimate the value of experience. They worry too much about what others will think. Friendships get in the way. They put off the decision and leave the current players in place…hoping for the best.

Fiat’s recent announcement of a 10% jump in revenue and a threefold increase in profits in 2010 is an impressive continuation of the turnaround led by CEO Sergio Marchionne. It was 2004 when Fiat, on the verge of bankruptcy, finally gave up on their traditional practice of family members and friend trying to run the [...]