To lead a successful company you don’t need to be an expert in programming, in tax accounting, in surveying or construction: but you do need to hire people who are.

As ad guru David Ogilvy put it: If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.

But it’s not enough to just hire giants. You need to be prepared to manage giants, and to keep them from getting dragged down by any dwarfs that may be lurking in your ranks. If you want them to deliver big, you have to build systems that enable and encourage giant achievements – and you need to give credit where credit is due.

Hiring giants is a great strategy from a succession point of view: if each manager hires a team of people smarter than they are, there’s a strong pool of potential successors. You want someone great to take over when you step down; it’s much easier than trying to groom a dwarf for greatness.