Finite groups satisfying the independence property

We say that a finite group G satisfies the independence property if, for every pair of distinct elements x and y of G, either {x, y} is contained in a minimal generating set for G or one of x and y is a power of the other. We give a complete classification of the finite groups with this property, and in particular prove that every such group is supersoluble. A key ingredient of our proof is a theorem showing that all but three finite almost simple groups H contain an element s such that the maximal subgroups of H containing s, but not containing the socle of H, are pairwise non-conjugate.