I agree that you need a leader with clear vision. In my opinion, the definition of a leader is "someone who has a clear vision". I don't think it needs to be

I agree that you need a leader with clear vision. In my opinion, the definition of a leader is "someone who has a clear vision". I don't think it needs to be the founder, though. In fact, one of the jobs of a leader is to train a successor (I think "Good to Great" mentions this). Empirically, though, vision seems to be a scarce commodity, so having the founder stay on for a long time is a good approach.