Yes, but it’s always a question of timeframe and personal distance. One of the insidious problems behind the modern MBAs’ veneration of Jack Welch is that GE al

Yes, but it’s always a question of timeframe and personal distance. One of the insidious problems behind the modern MBAs’ veneration of Jack Welch is that GE always made its numbers, irregardless of the long-term cost to the company. If you’re in a position where your personal compensation depends on something going on a particular schedule, such as a huge sale of airplanes once a new model is approved, it’s going to be very easy to tell yourself that it’s “just”government red-tape delaying your cabin cruiser and the “safety Nazis” are just over-concerned. The odds are good that nothing will happen for years so you might not even be there when it happens, and complex failures usually mean there will be some complicating factors so the guys who made bad calls might be telling themselves that everything would have been fine if it wasn’t for someone else’s actions.