Interesting FT article on the use of checklists, with a focus on investors:

Sure enough, when Smart tracked the venture capitalists’ success over time, it became clear that the airline captains had by far the most effective style. Those investors taking the checklist-driven approach had a 10 per cent likelihood of later having to fire senior management for incompetence or concluding that their original evaluation was inaccurate. The others had at least a 50 per cent likelihood. The results showed up in their bottom lines, too. The airline captains had a median 80 per cent return on the investments studied, the others 35 per cent or less.

It's about two years since the great New Yorker article on checklists by Atul Gawande, who has now written a book about it.