The skills required to become an exec are a lot of pitching yourself and networking to the right person to get your next job.
Those skills are only slightly correlated with how good you actually are as an exec.
Add to this that most companies don't like to take risks and will only hire an exec that has already be an exec somewhere else. To some level, once you make it through the exec glass ceiling, you are almost always guaranteed to always be an exec somewhere.
You see this all over the place by the way. I have seen the same thing for Directors, Principal engineers etc. Those people were not always that good at their job to justify their positions. But they for sure knew how to market themselves and interview well.
>The skills required to become an exec are a lot of pitching yourself and networking to the right person to get your next job. Those skills are only slightly correlated with how good you actually are as an exec.
source?
large corporations harnessing and deploying massive resources have led to air travel, skyscrapers, cell phones, MRI machines, medicines, the green revolution, etc. all things that require undertaking risk, but of course effectively managing it. Your claim is that skills don't matter to claim leadership positions in such organizations, only self promotion. OK, let's say that's true: the system sure seems to be working. And of course, people who think they have a better way are free to pursue that avenue... maybe some of the most successful companies in the world have pursued just such avenues.
Almost every economic system in history has had some impressive wins, but that doesn't mean that they are all perfectly efficient. Modern corporate capitalism isn't the worst system ever but that doesn't mean there aren't massive flaws and blindspots.
Becoming a large company CEO is highly correlated with who a person has spent time around. If it were a true meritocracy you would expect a roughly even distribution across regions and backgrounds, which is very much not the case.
If you ever work in a large corporation I can almost guarantee that you will encounter managers who are much better at networking and marketing themselves than they are at doing productive work.
Add to this that most companies don't like to take risks and will only hire an exec that has already be an exec somewhere else. To some level, once you make it through the exec glass ceiling, you are almost always guaranteed to always be an exec somewhere.
You see this all over the place by the way. I have seen the same thing for Directors, Principal engineers etc. Those people were not always that good at their job to justify their positions. But they for sure knew how to market themselves and interview well.