The best solution I've heard is to just spend a lot of effort finding good hires from a variety of backgrounds early on. Then it doesn't matter as much that eve

The best solution I've heard is to just spend a lot of effort finding good hires from a variety of backgrounds early on. Then it doesn't matter as much that everyone refers people like themselves. You still manage to cover most potential hires, even if any given referrer doesn't. The "early on" is important though, since "just try really hard" doesn't scale.