There are so many stories of these falls from grace. I remember when Theranos, WeWork, FTX, etc., were media darlings. People rush to emulate their strategy, leaders, and culture. Then the companies unravel or performance suffers and everyone tries to explain what went wrong.<p>I think a better explanation is “the halo effect.” Businesses have success, even if for a limited time, and using limited definitions (e.g. VC valuation), and people tell stories about why they’re successful that put leadership, strategy, culture, and so forth, front and centre, when it could have been dumb luck or a low interest rate environment or other factors totally unrelated to leadership, strategy, and culture.<p>A book that really opened my eyes to this was The Halo Effect: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/136181" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/136181</a>
Maybe the Bridgewater organisation is primarily a cover for an investment firm founded be rouge time travellers.<p>It seems to check all of the boxes, and while certainly far fetched, the hypothesis does provide a rationale for the sometimes bizarre behaviour and culture of the firm.<p>(/s)