When George Cain became CEO of Abbott
Laboratories, the company occupied a lowly space in
the pharmaceutical industry. Cain didn’t have an inspiring
personality to galvanize the company, but he did
have a steadfast intolerance for mediocrity; good was
simply not good enough. He destroyed the company’s
most glaring causes of its mediocrity — nepotism — by
rebuilding the board and executive teams with the best
people available, not just those who had family connections
or had been with the company longest.