this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
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There's an important thing that the CEO provides that no AI can: the acceptance of risk.
On a day-to-day basis the CEO makes decisions, ignores expert advice, knocks off early for tee time, etc. For this work they are wildly overpaid and could easily be replaced by having their responsibilities divvied up amongst a small group of people in leadership roles.
To see the true purpose of the CEO we need to look at a bigger scale - the quarter-to-quarter scale. What could be bigger than that in the world of the MBA?
Every quarter the CEO must have the company meet the financial performance expectations of the board/owner(s)/shareholders. Failure is likely to result in them losing their job and getting a reputation as an underperformer, thus ruining their career. If the company does poorly or those expectations are unreasonably high then the CEO must cut corners in the operation. This of course hampers their ability to meet expectations later, but they'll make it through this quarter.
When (inevitably) too many corners have been cut something catastrophic will happen. Either the company's reputation will go to shit with customers slowly, or a high-profile scandal will blow up in the company's face.
This is the moment when the CEO provides their most valuable service: to fall (or be pushed) onto their sword. The CEO is fired, ousted, or resigns. This allows the board/owner/shareholders to get a new face in and demand that they fix the most egregious issues, or at least the most glaring ones that don't cost too much to fix.
This service cannot be provided by an AI. Why? Because the AI is a creation of the company. If it is used as a scapegoat it solves nothing. The company is pointing at their own creation and saying "see, that's the problem". It's much more effective to point at a human they didn't make and scream that that person made a mistake.
CEOs? Ruin their career? By what, jumping ship and taking a $100M bonus?
Lol, like the previous Boeing CEO. Kill a few hundred people, planes or plane components falling out of the sky, absolutely tank all manufacturing quality control, fail a NASA contract and strand a few astronauts...
Peace out and take a $62M bonus.
I wish I could get paid that much for failure or "accepting responsibility" lol
Let me start by saying first and foremost the paychecks and severance packages are beyond ridiculous. Like fucking unconscionable.
Now, that being said yes, when the CEO rightly or wrongly (typically rightly) becomes the fall guy their career is over. If they manage to get another job it probably won't be in a leadership position, and if it is it would be with a much smaller organization that simply won't be able to pay them the big bucks. The best a CEO can hope for after a public downfall is to be put out to pasture.
I don't feel sad for them. While their golden parachute might represent literally the last money they will ever make it's more than enough to live off of for the rest of their lives.
There's an even bigger picture, though. Their personal reputation is ruined, but so is their family name. With the amount of money and prestige they were building up they may have had aspirations of positioning their kids as the elites of the future. Family money and connections could have ended up with their children some day becoming Senators and Congressmen. If they end up taking the fall, their public failure will sully their name for a couple of generations.
The kind of people that become CEOs of high-profile companies are a special breed of psycho. They're willing to accept huge piles of money to roll the dice on their own career and the reputation of themselves, their children, and their grandchildren on the off chance they manage to avoid the chopping block until retirement.
It's crazy what kind of bullshit some people will spout, like CEOs taking personal responsibility.
Is it really "taking" responsibility if it's getting pinned on you?
But feel free to "ruin my career" after cutting me a check for $62m.
Exactly they’re (over) paid fall guys.
But offering to take the fall to allow companies to pull the shit they do to workers, the environment, consumers, and investors is pretty fucking disgusting too.
Your description reminds me of the job Barney had in HIMYM.