When Coca-Cola was looking for someone to fill its top job last year, three of the handful of CEOs rumoured to be on the short list shared strikingly similar backgrounds. Mattel's Robert Eckert, Hershey's Richard Lenny, and Gillette's Jim Kilts all cut their managerial teeth at Kraft. That's no coincidence. Over the past two decades, Kraft has been a prodigious producer of big cheeses. In addition to Mattel, Hershey, and Gillette, its alumni have held the top posts at Sears, Quaker Oats, Campbell Soup, Young & Rubicam and Marks & Spencer. While most companies struggle to develop one or two outstanding general managers in a generation, Kraft has become a CEO machine.