I'm not going to repeat the other good points made here but point out this one: "There was also the issue of Pranab’s excessive hours spent playing video games

I'm not going to repeat the other good points made here but point out this one: "There was also the issue of Pranab’s excessive hours spent playing video games. I complained of this to Hinton, but Hinton hated any form of confrontation, so he excused Pranab’s behavior by saying that everyone occasionally goofs off at work." This is my major takeaway from this story. Any executive, especially a CEO, must be comfortable with confrontation. You should not be a Milburn but you should still be able to tell people whether their behavior or performance is unacceptable.