A money-management firm with a nice-guy culture was looking for an eats-nails-for-breakfast, kick-butt manager to run a new area of its portfolio. The first hire was aggressive with a capital A. In an office where flamboyant egos were scarce, the hotshot's first move was to order $200,000 worth of office furniture. "He needed to be a star," reports Elaine Eisenman of Management & Capital Partners, whose firm was enlisted to find a better match. The new guy flamed in four months, just long enough to get the furniture delivered. You know what the A stood for.
What's the state of aggression...