Beware of Typhoons--and 'Tycoon' ceos.

• Position: Business Briefs

Typhoons, as meteorologists know, are highly dangerous. And so, says Oliver Wyman & Co., are tycoons.

The New York-based consulting firm has created a "Tycoon Index" to measure what it says may be a propensity for a company to suffer from the excesses of a high-profile CEO who was largely responsible for building the firm.

"Each of the big recent failures was run by a CEO who presided over more than 86 percent of the revenue growth at 'his' company," Wyman wrote in a recent analysis.

Moreover, Wyman says, almost half of the companies with a very high Tycoon Index have defaulted.

Essentially, the company argues, tycoons do exceptionally well in boom times...