Why do so many people think an instance proves a rule. I have seen a lot of execs get fired. Some genius hired them. Take it away from HR and you got an exec screwup. Can not have it both ways.
Execs are just people doing a job. Some good ,some bad.
Yes Stone I do think skating is a prerequisite to be a pro hockey player. Some skate better than others. There is a range from pro bad to pro great. They are not all the same.
We have already established there is a pool ,for whatever reason ,execs come from. Some are pretty bad as the bankruptcy stats show. There are a lot of business failures are tha execs blameless?
You misunderstand my claim.
The OP speaks of “megabucks” CEOs. I am responding to that claim. I don’t doubt that if you pick among companies that have, say, 100 workers, you’ll find some Joe Averages running the shop.
However, it would not be accurate to call them “megabucks” CEOs, either, would it?
Find me the CEO that’s fairly described as getting paid “obscenely high pay” as the OP specified, and is also fairly described as an “Average Joe.”
I must confess that I have not been particularly impressed by the CEOs and upper management that I have met.
To describe them as ‘average’ plays into demographics, but as ‘unimpressive’ is about accurate.
Evil Captor did come up with an interesting point, there are often very few people willing to make decisions in larger companies
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my brother postulated a few interesting positions like ‘the official decision maker’ and ‘the serial fall guy CEO’
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my observation is that the closer you get to the top, the thinner the oxygen, and brain damage is inevitable.
‘We’ live in awe of our greaters and betters, but they are pretty naive, uninformed and boring.
CEOs are like economists. You don’t realize how great something is until after it’s done. Except for like a few stellar people, like Jobs, Welch, Dell, Cuban (a few others I’m sure I’m missing), the quarterly reports will look good, but no one will think it’s anything special. It takes like double digit growth quarter over quarter, and I’m talking about the proverbial hockey stick like growth chart for these CEOs to be instantly recognized as a superstar. The others won’t have their affect when someone realizes over a course of years “hey, that company doesn’t suck after all.” Or, “Oh, look another dividened payout, that’s like what, 6 years in a row?”
I would even argue that anyone running a profitable business is better than your average joe, especially, if that business involved commoditized goods and/or services. If one can turn a profit, especially a quick one, or improve efficiencies, that is already better than 75% of the people out there.