Hero hires can certainly fail. AOL (AOL) CEO Tim Armstrong has struggled to turn the company around after leaving his position as head of Google's (GOOG) U.S. ad sales two years ago, Useem says. Ed Zander, a star at Sun Microsystems, was brought in to revitalize Motorola (MSI) but floundered there before leaving in 2008.
救世主當然也可能失敗。烏西姆指出，美國在線(AOL)首席執行官蒂姆•阿姆斯特朗自兩年前離開谷歌(Google)美國廣告銷售主管一職后，一直在為改變美國在線的現狀苦苦掙扎。摩托羅拉（Motorola）曾寄望于IT公司Sun Microsystems的明星經理人埃德•詹德的加盟能讓公司重新煥發活力，但他直到2008年離職都未有建樹。

"Most often, the problem is a cultural one," Sanders says. But cultural problems can be difficult to diagnose until a new CEO is dropped into the company's pool.
“很多時候，問題在于企業文化，”桑德斯表示。然而，新任首席執行官在深入企業前很難診斷這些問題。

Hot new hires often fall into the white knight trap. This has been a problem for GE (GE) executives, Useem adds, many of whom have left their old jobs for new positions at other companies. "The outside companies know anybody from GE ought to be good," he says, and while they were good at GE, they didn't perform as well outside of GE's unique environment.
熱門經理人往往會掉入白衣騎士陷阱。烏西姆指出，通用電氣(GE)經理人一直有這樣的問題，他們中很多人辭去原有工作，接受其他公司的新職務。“外部公司總是認為通用電氣的經理人應該都不錯”。盡管這些人在通用表現出色，但是一旦離開了通用獨特的環境，他們便黯然失色。

Apple also gives departing executives rock-star status, a la Ron Johnson. No doubt, Johnson gained valuable experience at Apple. But delivering new ideas to JCPenney will require a very different approach. "If you think you're going to run JCPenney like you ran Apple, that's probably going to be a complete, unmitigated disaster," Useem says.
蘋果公司給予離任的經理人以搖滾歌星般的地位，如羅恩•約翰遜。毫無疑問，約翰遜在蘋果公司積累了寶貴的經驗。但要在JCPenney提出新點子需要全然不同的方式。烏西姆表示，“如果以為能像在蘋果一樣經營JCPenney，可能會釀成徹頭徹尾、無法挽回的災難。”