There are probably few people in the Swiss watch industry who understand this perspective more than Margolis, who is an outsider in a largely inbred industry.

FORBES: Michael Margolis: From Watch Lover to Brand Leader at Girard-Perregaux

In a separate interview, Ms Kisko told the BBC the Kennel Club currently allowed inbred dogs to be registered with them - a requirement for entry into Crufts.

BBC: Kennel Club lodges BBC complaint

At the moment, the use of hybrid seeds produced from inbred strains means that it is pointless for a farmer to replant any seeds from his harvest.

ECONOMIST: Genetic engineering: No sex, please, we��re plants | The

It got its start in 1929 when Clarence Cook Little, a Harvard-trained geneticist, developed inbred strains of mice in order to study cancer.

FORBES: Crossbreed

Shinsei Bank has become a highly profitable financial institution but only after half its assets were written off by the government and a large contingent of outside experts came in to shake up its inbred corporate culture.

FORBES: The Panic Spreads

Tony Collins, executive editor of Computer Weekly, a trade magazine which has specialised in charting government computer-procurement failures, says that Whitehall's inbred culture has proved resistant to learning the lessons of past mistakes.

ECONOMIST: Government