I completely agree that it’s a crap-shoot, but again from the perspective of a board they’d rather cover their bases and over pay. Especially when this compensa

I completely agree that it’s a crap-shoot, but again from the perspective of a board they’d rather cover their bases and over pay. Especially when this compensation is a fractional percent of the company’s revenue. The other factor is that when you’re on an exec search team, you just look at other executives in the same industry. There might only be 5-10 total that have similar qualifications and are in your comp range. The core issue is that power and relationships within a given industry are typically very concentrated so there’s a limited pool to draw from if you want an exec (and most boards do) who brings that.