No matter how capable he is, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is finding it almost impossible to fill the shoes of his smooth-operating predecessor Mr Blair. And the poor soul who has to eventually take over from the legend that is Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United Football Club will also find that mantle a problematic one to assume - no matter how talented they are.
In the media world, a group of charismatic, entrepreneurial individuals blazed a trail in the '80s and '90s, setting up agencies that have become the engine rooms of modern media buying and planning. Jonathan Durden, David Pattison, Nick Manning, Colin Gottlieb and Christine Walker are just some of these legends.
Many have now moved on or are enjoying well-earned semi-retirement. Meanwhile, the next generations have to deal with their intrepid founders' legacies but also blaze their own trail and position these now-mature businesses for a very different 21st Century media environment.
In some cases, the transition has been smooth; in others, the growing pains have been more severe. Interviewing Philippa Brown recently, the chief executive of Omnicom Media Group and acting chief executive of PHD UK, I was struck by the fact that she had had to adopt a very firm and proactive strategy to put PHD back on course.
But, of course, she had the benefit of a clear mandate from her boss - who happens to be one of the aforementioned legends - to make these changes, something that may not have been afforded to her immediate predecessor in the top seat at PHD.
Don't forget to submit your entries for the Media Week Awards: the deadline is this Friday, 20 June. This is also the deadline for the inaugural Guardian Newspaper Planning Awards, in association with Media Week. And finally, the deadline for the AOL Online Planning Awards, in association with Media Week, is Friday, 4 July.
