Some businesses are based primarily on credentials, others on performance. With a broad spectrum in between, this can make it difficult for an outsider to know

Some businesses are based primarily on credentials, others on performance. With a broad spectrum in between, this can make it difficult for an outsider to know where they would stand or even if they could be allowed into the organization. The bigger the business, the more it can get by on credentials alone, or sometimes on the parasitic action of the credentialed on the true domain performers. Especially "institutions" which became "too big to fail" before anybody living was even born.