One might argue that the Sister-Dong- never-wrong school of management is something that only works in China, where the fondness for autocracy is considerable and theory of management is still about making money and hasn't evolved to include such soppy practices as mentoring or 360-degree feedback.

Yet last week I went to see The September Issue, a documentary about life at American Vogue, and can confirm that the Sister-Dong-never-wrong approach can work quite brilliantly in the most highly evolved and most competitive of industries: fashion.

Anna Wintour, the magazine's editor, is Sister Dong's Manhattan soulmate. In the course of the film, one of her staff comments that working for the magazine is “like belonging to a church”. Does that mean Wintour is the high priestess, she is asked. “No,” she replies. “More like the Pope.”

For 90 minutes, we see a not very personable, deeply repressed woman who never praises anyone and hardly ever smiles, getting into or out of chauffeur- driven cars and telling her underlings their work is ugly or boring. Yet for 20 years, this woman has hung on at the top of her business, while most CEOs – male and female – last four or five years before they are spat out or squashed.

Alas, Wintour did nothing as vulgar in the film as to reflect on her own success as a dictator. So I'm going to attempt to do it for her and explain how a tyrant can rule in the west.

Step one. Have a genius as number two who dares to purse their lips disapprovingly when you get out of line. Wintour's greatest asset is Grace Coddington, her flame-haired creative director, who has lasted 20 years too.

Step two. Make decisions. Most CEOs consult, dither, look over their shoulders, fret about upsetting people and change their minds. Wintour simply decides. And when she's decided, that's it.

Step three. Command respect. Watching the film makes one realise what an enormous deal respect is and how it is
not won by being nicey-nicey. One luckless underling who had been given a frosty bollocking said to the camera: “I am going to kill myself.” But the next time we saw her she was still alive and had redoubled her efforts to do better next time. Praise, it seems, is far less effective as a motivational tool than the desire to please the Pope.

Step four. Be right. Like Dong, Wintour thinks she is never wrong. But in Wintour's case the extraordinary thing is that she almost never is wrong. Partly this is because she is very clever, very experienced, very hard-working, and
minds more than seems reasonable. But it is also because she has been so right for so long that she is now right by
definition. If Anna says fur is in, it's in. If she says Sienna Miller's hair is lacklustre, then it's lacklustre.

Pulling off the same feat with air conditioning must be harder. For Sister Dong, and for all the other CEOs who run complicated, global businesses, it is terribly hard to tell if they are actually wrong or not. And in the meantime they have a choice. Either rule by fear – which still works in China and in fashion – or rule by banging on about passion and mentors and hoping that if you are wrong, no one will notice.