The fact is: It's not our money. Oh for sure, I can spend millions of dollars just by saying I believe it will deliver tens more to the company. If I'm right,

The fact is: It's not our money. Oh for sure, I can spend millions of dollars just by saying I believe it will deliver tens more to the company. If I'm right, I'll get a fat bonus, and if I'm wrong (too much), they'll fire me. But If I say we need to send millions of dollars or else we'll run into an amorphous risk that might make us look bad, how possibly can the board evaluate my claim? Or put another way, if I said I had a tiger-detecting t-shirt that made noise when a tiger about to strike, would you believe me? It is really hard to invest in something that benefits anyone other than the company, and harder still if it benefits someone else more. Basically it needs to be your money, or clearly cost-of-sales to make that kind of decision, so while I think I can empathise with the rant, I'm not sure what I (or any executive, really) could do about it.