must set a personal example that translates into both corporate and product quality.

· Openness: CEOs who encourage an "open-door" policy, invite suggestions for change and solutions from anyone, anywhere, and who are willing to openly acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses tend to be good, honest leaders. They have no "hidden agendas" and demonstrate a realistic, appropriate pride in their accomplishments. They usually get things done through the natural processes of building interpersonal respect and recognizing competence.

· Background: Good training and good role models, or mentors, are two of the most common attributes of effective CEOs. The problem is that the great companies don't let their people escape. Thus, many of the available CEO candidates may be the products of an inferior corporate background and inferior professional role models. The best alternatives are often "virgin" candidates with no preconceived company concept.

· Team-building skills and ability to delegate: These attributes, which are actually closely related to the team dimension, involve the CEO's personal ability to create, motivate, and drive the team in a productive and organized way.

· Ego and humility: Excessive ego or lack of ego can lead CEOs either to consistently fail to delegate authority and responsibility, or to chronically overcommit or undercommit to accomplish personal and company goals. CEOs must therefore be able to restrain, but not eliminate, their personal and professional pride. The accuracy of the CEOs' assessment of the company's (and their own) strengths and weaknesses gives an indication of their true humility.

Just how critical is CEO selection? Dennis Gorman of Sevin Rosen found that over 90 percent of the companies backed by his firm that went public were still headed by the original CEO, whereas 25 percent of the companies that failed or were floundering had retained the founding CEO.

In summary, James Swartz, past chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, describes five attributes that a CEO needs to "win a venture capitalist": leadership, vision, integrity, openness, and dedication.

CEO FLAWS

CEOs' flaws are legendary, as countless newspaper and magazine articles have chronicled with delight. Some CEOs have been victimized by technology's moving more slowly than they anticipated; others have met their fate at the hands of a fickle buying market; still others have simply been losers. Unfortunately, the authors of

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