Like a mountain climber confronting an unknown and unclimbed rock face, he could not predict what the mountain would throw at him, and if caught off-guard by a severe storm. . . well, that's when climbers die.

So what did Cooley set out as his plan? He didn't.

More precisely, he didn't first focus on the question of "what" to do, but instead focused on the question of who.

What is the best hedge against an uncertain environment, the ultimate strategy for climbing a mountain in severe conditions? Pick the right climbing partners . . . those who can adapt to whatever the environment might throw at you.

"That's how you build the future, " Cooley said. "If I'm not smart enough to see the changes that are coming, they will. And they'll be flexible enough to deal with them."

By "injecting an endless stream of talent" directly into the veins of the company and building the best management team in the industry, Cooley set the stage for Wells Fargo's leap to outperform the stock market by more than three times, even as its sector of the banking industry fell 59% below the market.

Cooley exemplified a fundamental principle that separates those who build great companies from those who do not: the "First Who" principle.

First, get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, the right people into the right seats . . .

and then figure out where to drive the bus.

Before deciding that someone is the wrong person on the bus, the best leaders we have studied first ask: "Do we have a bus problem or a seat problem? Do we have the right person, but perhaps in the wrong seat?"

Still, that leaves the question: What makes for the right people on the bus? My research would suggest five generic traits.

1. The right people "t the company's core values. Great companies build tight, almost cult-like cultures, where those who do not share the values of the institution find themselves surrounded by antibodies and ejected like a virus. At Nucor Steel, which cultivates a passionate work ethic as a core value, workers are reported to have once chased a lazy colleague out of the factory with an angle iron.

People often ask, "How do you get people to share our core values?" The answer: You don't. You hire people who already have a predisposition to the core values, and hang on to them.

2. The right people don't need to be tightly managed. The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you know you may have made a hiring mistake. The right people don't need to be tightly managed. Guided, taught, led, yes, but not micro-managed.

If you have the right people on the bus, you don't need to spend a lot of time "motivating" or "managing" them.

They will be productively neurotic, self-motivated and self-disciplined, compulsively driven to do the best they can because it is simply part of their DNA.

3. The right people understand that they do not have jobs;

they have responsibilities. Suppose an air traffic controller said, "I did all the tasks on my list right today", yet a number of airplanes crashed. Would that be good enough? The right people grasp the difference between their task list and their true responsibilities . . .

getting the airplanes up and down safely.

A great company cultivates a culture of discipline, composed first and foremost of disciplined people who engage in disciplined thought and disciplined action.

The cornerstone of a culture of discipline is the idea of operating freedom within a rigorous framework of responsibilities.

4. The right people display 'window and mirror' maturity.

When things go well, the right people point out the window to apportion credit to factors other than themselves. They shine a light on other people who contributed to the success and take little of the credit.

Yet when things go awry, they do not blame circumstances or other people for setbacks and failures. They point in the mirror and say, "I am responsible".

5. The right people have passion for the company and its work.

Nothing great happens without passion, and the right people display remarkable passion for the company and its cause. If you cannot get passionate about the company and what it does, it's better to leave the bus than to languish in a company that inspires no passion, engaged in work that you do not love.

David Packard (above), founder of Hewlett-Packard, once said that a great company is more likely to die of indigestion from too much opportunity than starvation from too little. Our research supports Packard's point, and leads to one irrefutable conclusion: the primary constraint on growth and success for a great company is not markets or technology or opportunity or capital: the greatest constraint, above all, is the ability to attract and retain enough of the right people in the key seats.

What are the key seats on your bus or minibus? Do you have 100% of those seats filled with the right people . . . not 70%, not 80%, not 90%, but 100% of the key seats?

If not, then you have no higher priority.