> How many people in the world can run an organization of that size and scope? Not many at all. This is not actually self-evident, and I'd really love some

> How many people in the world can run an organization of that size and scope? Not many at all. This is not actually self-evident, and I'd really love some (any) attempt establishing it, either rhetorically or evidence-based. Personally, I think a great many people have the skills & abilities needed to run these companies, but that is not what headhunting committees look for/what is actually being valued. They are looking instead for choices that are defensible, i.e., no one ever got sued for breach of fiduciary duty by appointing the Harvard MBA who ran three other multinationals -- even if they ran them all into the ground. (to clarify: i think that you're actually claiming that few people can run these behemoth companies successfully. I think that success is actually very difficult to measure: e.g., establishing what would've happened if you appointed an 'average CEO', vs. appointing someone from 'the factory line' who knows the product, vs. appointing a bum on the street. What trends were already in place for/against the company, etc., what cultural inertia did they inherit, etc. )