This is definitely not true at a small company (say less than 10 developers). If the CTO sits no more than 2 cubicles away from every engineer he better know w

This is definitely not true at a small company (say less than 10 developers). If the CTO sits no more than 2 cubicles away from every engineer he better know who the top performers are. If employees are playing politics at a small company, that company is already doomed.