Denver-based Janus Capital Management has a cowboy culture that emphasizes star managers.

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The financial landscape is littered with the wrecks of formerly high-flying funds and their star managers, many of whom retire and leave the industry just in the nick of time.

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In the hedge-fund world and the U.S. mutual fund business, star managers like Peter Lynch, George Soros and Julian Robertson became household names on the heels of their impressive investment performances.

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The idea was simple: take the portfolios of the longtime star fund managers and see which stocks they have in common.

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This gave underwriters a status like that of star fund-managers in America.

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The same can be said for star mutual fund managers.

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Some, such as Morningstar in America, summarise past performance in star ratings, as if managers were restaurants.

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These individuals do not have to be brilliant managers themselves, any more than a tennis star's coach needs to be a brilliant tennis player.

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Blue Star is a broker between people who want to charter a plane or helicopter and owners or managers of some 4, 000 aircraft.

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Fulham's Murphy, once a star graduate of Gradi's academy, inflamed passions with last week's public criticism of several Premier League managers.

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