4 ms·

Every part of this is wrong. What happened to the targets was appalling. But why why why why do people believe the utter fiction that these companies put out a

Every part of this is wrong. What happened to the targets was appalling. But why why why why do people believe the utter fiction that these companies put out after this happened? If you are the Board, what the hell are you doing here? This guy was clearly not on the level, why didn't this come up? And why is anyone getting paid near $100m to manage EBay into the ground. As an investor, this makes no sense. The issue is that you have this perpetual circle of utter incompetent human beings on Board spending other people's money. And if you are the CEO, it doesn't matter if you knew it about or not. He is quite clearly lying but what is most amazing here is that his lie doesn't even explain the behaviour. If you are the CEO, THIS IS YOUR JOB! Take responsibility. Also, he quite clearly was directly responsible for this. You have to be an utter degenerate to know the police have texts of you saying to take someone down, and then tell the media it was nothing to do with you. This is why I truly despair as an investor though. You are surrounded by people who are utterly and totally incompetent. Boards aren't up to it. Executives aren't up to it. And I am trusting my reputation on them. This is like having to ride a donkey in the Kentucky Derby. (And btw, the EBay Board is apparently "stacked". Omiydar, the ex-CEO of Bain is Chairman, VC/founders, CEO of Lyft, former Chairman of NBC, CEO of Intel...all people who have mostly made their living acting as agents rather than principals...btw, the head of the Compensation Committee was the guy who is known only for driving Gap into the ground...something of an expert in failure then).

celim307 6y ago
I feel at a certain level of leadership in large companies, you just make it into the club and no matter what you do, some other large company will pick you up due to the same mindset of "no one ever got fired for buying IBM". The last SVP of my working org dropped the ball so hard our client walked away from hundreds of millions of dollars in hardware and infrastructure just to be done with it. He got canned then picked up by a similar company inside two months with the same title.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- achillesheels 6y ago
  I feel this is the MBA “journey”: Endless corporate striving to get seats as a way of blotting out the vanity of existence. I’ll try for an honest existence, thanks much.
- hogFeast 6y ago
  Correct. There was a post the other day about VC "pattern matching" causing discrimination...this is the same thing. Most executives are chosen because they look like executives, and have a good CV. If you have failed but have an MBA from Harvard, people will give you a pass. I don't know how you solve this either btw. Part of the problem is people failing but the obvious connected factor is companies hiring poorly. Hiring is where many companies go wrong imo.
julianeon 6y ago
I wonder if part of it is that corporate culture run amok. It does seem significant that they had a really great board that should've never allowed this. They should do some serious soul-searching. How could it reach this point? This is just a guess, but I've worked at companies where I worried the leadership took the analogy of 'going to war' a little too seriously. Like they didn't get that it was supposed to motivate us to make a better product and win the customer. Not literally go to war. Does an executive have a killer instinct? Will they go for the jugular? The answer is supposed to be yes - metaphorically. Many executives don't get the 'metaphorical' part, which is one reason to drop that language. Just work super hard and make a better product. Maneuver in the market to outsmart your competitor. Don't literally try to kill them with a heart attack, or send pig heads to critics writing negatively about your company.
- hogFeast 6y ago
  Yep, there is some point between building a product that customers like and sending pig heads to people who have wronged you...before the "pig head" phase is probably best. Being serious, some people aren't meant to lead. It is why police need oversight, it is why politicians need oversight...95% of people will fold instantly when put in leadership (that this was triggered by the CEO's wife suggests true fragility). Some can't make decisions, some ego hard...but most people shouldn't be there. It is that simple. Btw though, I wouldn't call the board great. Again, the Compensation Committee Chair is well-known as one of the worst retail executives of all time (up there with Ron Johnson of JC Penney fame). The board is largely composed of people like the CEO whose only proven ability is being able to bullshit other people about their failure. That is what being a CEO/director usually optimises for. Everyone fails but these guys don't learn and are delusional about their failure. They are agents. Make the directors invest 50% of their net worth and take all their pay as variable compensation. See how many Wenigs they hire? Zero. Very easy to make bad decisions when you are making $400k/year base (add a bonus) for twenty hours work. Put a spike in the middle of the steering wheel, you won't get many speeders.
  - julianeon 6y ago
    That seems pretty convincing. I hope they clean house.

celim307 6y ago

I feel at a certain level of leadership in large companies, you just make it into the club and no matter what you do, some other large company will pick you up due to the same mindset of "no one ever got fired for buying IBM". The last SVP of my working org dropped the ball so hard our client walked away from hundreds of millions of dollars in hardware and infrastructure just to be done with it. He got canned then picked up by a similar company inside two months with the same title.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
achillesheels 6y ago
I feel this is the MBA “journey”: Endless corporate striving to get seats as a way of blotting out the vanity of existence. I’ll try for an honest existence, thanks much.
hogFeast 6y ago
Correct. There was a post the other day about VC "pattern matching" causing discrimination...this is the same thing. Most executives are chosen because they look like executives, and have a good CV. If you have failed but have an MBA from Harvard, people will give you a pass. I don't know how you solve this either btw. Part of the problem is people failing but the obvious connected factor is companies hiring poorly. Hiring is where many companies go wrong imo.

julianeon 6y ago

I wonder if part of it is that corporate culture run amok. It does seem significant that they had a really great board that should've never allowed this. They should do some serious soul-searching. How could it reach this point? This is just a guess, but I've worked at companies where I worried the leadership took the analogy of 'going to war' a little too seriously. Like they didn't get that it was supposed to motivate us to make a better product and win the customer. Not literally go to war. Does an executive have a killer instinct? Will they go for the jugular? The answer is supposed to be yes - metaphorically. Many executives don't get the 'metaphorical' part, which is one reason to drop that language. Just work super hard and make a better product. Maneuver in the market to outsmart your competitor. Don't literally try to kill them with a heart attack, or send pig heads to critics writing negatively about your company.

hogFeast 6y ago
Yep, there is some point between building a product that customers like and sending pig heads to people who have wronged you...before the "pig head" phase is probably best. Being serious, some people aren't meant to lead. It is why police need oversight, it is why politicians need oversight...95% of people will fold instantly when put in leadership (that this was triggered by the CEO's wife suggests true fragility). Some can't make decisions, some ego hard...but most people shouldn't be there. It is that simple. Btw though, I wouldn't call the board great. Again, the Compensation Committee Chair is well-known as one of the worst retail executives of all time (up there with Ron Johnson of JC Penney fame). The board is largely composed of people like the CEO whose only proven ability is being able to bullshit other people about their failure. That is what being a CEO/director usually optimises for. Everyone fails but these guys don't learn and are delusional about their failure. They are agents. Make the directors invest 50% of their net worth and take all their pay as variable compensation. See how many Wenigs they hire? Zero. Very easy to make bad decisions when you are making $400k/year base (add a bonus) for twenty hours work. Put a spike in the middle of the steering wheel, you won't get many speeders.
- julianeon 6y ago
  That seems pretty convincing. I hope they clean house.