It was all coming together for the young start-up: innovative technology, successful customer trials, an emerging market, and now a fresh round of venture funding tucked safely in the bank. Next up was hiring a high-powered sales executive to unleash the firm into the market. It was agreed they would settle for nothing less than the 'best of the best', someone deep in their markets, with a rolodex of contacts and a track record of building successful sales organizations.

Family businesses have been employers of choice for generations of executives. They are seen as more benevolent, personal, stable and loyal than the faceless, soul-less entities that serve as their corporate or public-sector alternatives.

WHEN I THINK BACK ON THE MOVIE THE RIGHT STUFF (1983), I recall how inspirational it was covering the "race for space" that emerged during the early '50s. The stakes were high given that this was really a race between the Americans and the Russians for world dominance. The film covered the selection, training and the inevitable highs and lows of the "chosen" few, culminating with man landing on the Moon in July 1969.

It is the dominant form of business structure worldwide From farmers to small mom-and-pop shops to one-third of Fortune 500 businesses, estimates are that over 80% of businesses are family-owned or controlled,. These include global icons such as Michelin, IKEA, Tata, Ford, Roche, Henkel, Heineken, Cargill, Mars, Bacardi's, Wal-Mart, Samsung, Bosch, and countless others. Family business leaders are often the best and brightest executives in their industries. They run professional, innovative, aggressive companies that expand the horizons of innovation, productivity and efficiency. Some observers believe that family firms, with their lower leverage, long-term approach and loyalty to employees point the way to a more stable kind of capitalism in the future.

Executives around the world have been caught in a storm of market collapse, corporate failures, and mass layoffs. For a great many, the forecast remains unsettled if not downright bleak. Yet if history is any guide, the majority will weather the recessionary storm. Some will actually sow the seeds of success through the adversity while a few will, unfortunately never recover...

The classic profile, making the relationship work and why it so often fails. Buried among the stock market rubble of the past year is News Corp, the $33bb media giant hand-crafted by fabled entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch. Its stock, like so many others, has been battered amid questions surrounding the economy, the sector and the company itself.

The Role of Organizational Context - Suppose for a moment you are the board member charged with recruiting a new CEO into IBM. The executive search firm that you retain presents a slate of candidates featuring two CEOs of very successful small start-up software companies.

It is a lament heard across the Canadian technology sector: Where are the successful serial CEOs and why do they appear so much more plentiful in the U.S. than in Canada? A quick scan of the U.S. tech community readily surfaces a class of executives for whom success only eggs them on to pursue even bigger challenges.

We are all drawn and inspired by tales of entrepreneurial success. It may be the young engineer who founded a company which seemingly overnight was acquired by Microsoft or Cisco. It may be the drop-out who built a web-site now viewed by millions of people each and every day.

In this StoneWood Perspective we examine the elusive quest for excellence in selection. We describe the complexities of picking winners and how organizations most commonly deal with them. Finally, we lay out an approach by which to enhance selection decisions in all organizations.