give "who says elephants can't dance" a read. it deals with the turnaround of ibm, a company with tremendous institutional inertia.

http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnar...

That's not true - there's been great non-founder CEOs promoted from within and great outsider CEOs in history. Actually, you really want one of those in a crisis that your current team hasn't been able to dig itself out of.

First to come to mind is Lou Gerstner, who turned around IBM. I read his autobiography about the experience - crazy stuff. He was up against so much built up gunk and bureaucracy, that only an outsider could've broken.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_V._Gerstner,_Jr.#IBM

http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnar...

Yes, after they lost something like a third of their market cap and shrank, and reorganized and clawed their way back.

"""Gerstner quarterbacked one of history's most dramatic corporate turnarounds. For those who follow business stories like football games, his tale of the rise, fall and rise of IBM might be the ultimate slow-motion replay. He became IBM's CEO in 1993, when the gargantuan company was near collapse."""

From one of the reviews here http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnar...