5 ms·

I don't think having an engineer as a leader is some golden ticket to success. Its ultimately what ruined Nortel for example.

Twirrim 3y ago
Same for Sun Microsystems.
- hef19898 3y ago
  Nor is it an indicator for good business ethics: exhibit A, the VW Diesel scandal.
- fch42 3y ago
  Sun Microsystems never had an engineering-career CEO; whether Scott McNealy, Ed Zander, or Ponytail ... all on the sales side. No doubt it had strong "CTO" type people. Though not in the CEO, chairman or president/COO positions.
avalys 3y ago
Selecting an engineer doesn’t absolve the board of the responsibility to choose the right guy. There are incompetent engineers, unethical engineers and there are engineers who are bad leaders. But an accountant as CEO is not going to restore a culture of engineering excellence.
- lrem 3y ago
  Why? The CEO of a company this big, no matter their background, has no business building an intimate understanding of the tech. They’re there to set up an incentive system to further the goals of their choosing. Neither seems to call for deep understanding of neither. And no background absolves a CEO from building a surface understanding of all aspects of running the business. TBF, from my experience with VPs, technical background might be a hindrance to executives. The guy who used to work on databases worries about persistence, even though nobody raised that issue. Networking background? Oh well, good that I know why we put this many bits into this field, despite it only needs a couple bytes and we can afford megabytes. Sure, they know their job enough to leave enough time for the actual question. I even understand why they first interrogate the room about some arbitrary cog in the machine. Still makes me wonder if there aren’t better ways to do this.
  - Syonyk 3y ago
    > Why? The CEO of a company this big, no matter their background, has no business building an intimate understanding of the tech. This is certainly a point of contention in modern schools of business thought, but the concept of a CEO who doesn't understand what the company builds is bizarre to me. The CEO of Boeing, IMO, should probably have aircraft engineering experience, and, ideally, also be a pilot with the suitable type ratings to fly the stuff they build. And they should be open to "Hey, if you have engineering concerns about the airplanes we're building for the traveling public, you come to me!" style office visits. Someone with concerns about the "single sensor fault runaway trim" style system should have been able to bring it up, and have him understand it. I know this isn't what Boeing has. And they've lost a lot. This is now increasingly clear to people outside aviation circles.
    - re5i5tor 3y ago
      Agree 100%
    - sandworm101 3y ago
      >> also be a pilot with the suitable type ratings to fly the stuff they build. Why the pilot? When it comes to handling these machines, the pilots are one small corner. I would think that someone with experience keeping them safe and functional would be more on point these days. How about someone with the ratings for maintaining the machines? No pilot has ever inspected let alone installed a door plug.
      - bluejellybean 3y ago
        > No pilot has ever inspected let alone installed a door plug. Guess we run in different circles!
      - AdrianB1 3y ago
        It takes ~ 50 hours to get a pilot license and understand what is that. You don't need ATPL as a CEO, but flying regularly will keep you connected in a way that cannot be substituted, definitely not by the glasshouse that is a MBA. Can you be a successful CEO of a car manufacturer if you cannot drive a car?
OhMeadhbh 3y ago
That wasn't the only thing that ruined Nortel, but it sure as heck didn't save them.
Log_out_ 3y ago
So ip theft without re-percussions was not at the heart of that downfall. Honestly, if ip is that blatantly stolen, a company should have the right to penalty Tarif all products there IP flows into without licenses in perpetuity until a patent would have expired.
lokar 3y ago
IME it helps tremendously on close calls where the leader needs to pick a side, and the finance/sales/legal people have very clear numbers or other quantitative data and Eng has more subjective and hard to quantify concerns like quality.

Twirrim 3y ago

Same for Sun Microsystems.

hef19898 3y ago
Nor is it an indicator for good business ethics: exhibit A, the VW Diesel scandal.
fch42 3y ago
Sun Microsystems never had an engineering-career CEO; whether Scott McNealy, Ed Zander, or Ponytail ... all on the sales side. No doubt it had strong "CTO" type people. Though not in the CEO, chairman or president/COO positions.

avalys 3y ago

Selecting an engineer doesn’t absolve the board of the responsibility to choose the right guy. There are incompetent engineers, unethical engineers and there are engineers who are bad leaders. But an accountant as CEO is not going to restore a culture of engineering excellence.

lrem 3y ago
Why? The CEO of a company this big, no matter their background, has no business building an intimate understanding of the tech. They’re there to set up an incentive system to further the goals of their choosing. Neither seems to call for deep understanding of neither. And no background absolves a CEO from building a surface understanding of all aspects of running the business. TBF, from my experience with VPs, technical background might be a hindrance to executives. The guy who used to work on databases worries about persistence, even though nobody raised that issue. Networking background? Oh well, good that I know why we put this many bits into this field, despite it only needs a couple bytes and we can afford megabytes. Sure, they know their job enough to leave enough time for the actual question. I even understand why they first interrogate the room about some arbitrary cog in the machine. Still makes me wonder if there aren’t better ways to do this.
- Syonyk 3y ago
  > Why? The CEO of a company this big, no matter their background, has no business building an intimate understanding of the tech. This is certainly a point of contention in modern schools of business thought, but the concept of a CEO who doesn't understand what the company builds is bizarre to me. The CEO of Boeing, IMO, should probably have aircraft engineering experience, and, ideally, also be a pilot with the suitable type ratings to fly the stuff they build. And they should be open to "Hey, if you have engineering concerns about the airplanes we're building for the traveling public, you come to me!" style office visits. Someone with concerns about the "single sensor fault runaway trim" style system should have been able to bring it up, and have him understand it. I know this isn't what Boeing has. And they've lost a lot. This is now increasingly clear to people outside aviation circles.
  - re5i5tor 3y ago
    Agree 100%
  - sandworm101 3y ago
    >> also be a pilot with the suitable type ratings to fly the stuff they build. Why the pilot? When it comes to handling these machines, the pilots are one small corner. I would think that someone with experience keeping them safe and functional would be more on point these days. How about someone with the ratings for maintaining the machines? No pilot has ever inspected let alone installed a door plug.
    - bluejellybean 3y ago
      > No pilot has ever inspected let alone installed a door plug. Guess we run in different circles!
    - AdrianB1 3y ago
      It takes ~ 50 hours to get a pilot license and understand what is that. You don't need ATPL as a CEO, but flying regularly will keep you connected in a way that cannot be substituted, definitely not by the glasshouse that is a MBA. Can you be a successful CEO of a car manufacturer if you cannot drive a car?

OhMeadhbh 3y ago

That wasn't the only thing that ruined Nortel, but it sure as heck didn't save them.

Log_out_ 3y ago

So ip theft without re-percussions was not at the heart of that downfall. Honestly, if ip is that blatantly stolen, a company should have the right to penalty Tarif all products there IP flows into without licenses in perpetuity until a patent would have expired.

lokar 3y ago

IME it helps tremendously on close calls where the leader needs to pick a side, and the finance/sales/legal people have very clear numbers or other quantitative data and Eng has more subjective and hard to quantify concerns like quality.