Secret to Success -- A Good Personality

The Cambridge crew offers an unexpected lesson in getting diverse corporate oars to pull together

Pal Hansen for TIME

Mark de Rond, faculty member of the Cambridge Judge Business School, at the Goldie Boathouse.

It's called, simply, The Boat Race. But the grueling, annual 178-year-old meet, which pits two eight-man rowing teams from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford against each other along a four-mile stretch of London's River Thames, is the most famous, most watched rowing race in the world. In April, when Cambridge staged an amazing come-from-behind win, one of the victorious rowers was Dan O'Shaughnessy, a brash Canadian who initially didn't make the coaches' cut. O'Shaughnessy's a strong rower, but in this sport, synchronization is key, and his technique didn't quite mesh with the Cambridge rowing style. Still, his clowning good nature...

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