UK: CHARISMA AND HOW TO GROW IT - Professor Jay Conger is the first academic to study this most elusive ...

CHARISMA AND HOW TO GROW IT - Professor Jay Conger is the first academic to study this most elusive quality in depth. Formerly a 'charisma guru' at the University of Southern California, he now brings his knowledge to the London Business School, where he believes that many of the traits that make a successful entrepreneur can be taught.

One morning, Jim Dawson of Zebco, the world's largest fishing tackle company, walked on to the production floor of the US company's flagship manufacturing plant and put an end to the traditional time clock. It was a calculated step but still a daring one. And it was more than that. It was a charismatic action - because Dawson didn't do it with an executive memo. He did it with a crowbar. And as workers ran to witness the style of the company's new president, he ripped away a debilitating spell of labour-management strife.