I think this is one of those cases where there's really very little way of knowing what really worked and what didn't. It's like a sports team: you can make ALL the right managerial choices, but still fail due to chance and factors outside your control.
At best there are some reasonably good heuristics.
On the flip side you can hire Michael Jordan and screw everything else up and still win. Then go on to write a business book that’s completely misleading because you never realize that you did only one thing right, and that was enough.
At best there are some reasonably good heuristics.