3 ms·

Morris Chang wasn't some rando - he was a Group VP at Texas Instruments (reports to CEO) and COO of General Instruments (a major CMOS manufacturer from the 70s-

Morris Chang wasn't some rando - he was a Group VP at Texas Instruments (reports to CEO) and COO of General Instruments (a major CMOS manufacturer from the 70s-90s - found in Spellovision). This is the equivalent of Sheryl Sandberg being tasked by a government to found a multi-billion government funded competitor of Facebook.

rmk 2y ago
Sheryl Sandberg does not have a technical background. A better analogy would be Eric Schmidt or Adam D'Angelo.
- alephnerd 2y ago
  Eric Schmidt sure, but not D'Angelo, as D'Angelo was never a C-Suite who climbed the ladder but was one of the earliest employees at FB when it was being built. At the C-Suite level - even at a deeply technical company like TSMC - the job is mostly investor relations and arbitrating between various business units internally, so while a technical background is nice to have, the business chops are more critical than technical chops. Look at Hock Tan at Broadcom for example - he started out as a line level EE in the semiconductor space (Malaysia is THE packaging and testing hub for semiconductors), but he is notorious for being extremely dollar driven (I've heard him unironically say "Show me the money" a couple times).
  - rmk 2y ago
    > At the C-Suite level - even at a deeply technical company like TSMC - the job is mostly investor relations and arbitrating between various business units internally, so while a technical background is nice to have, the business chops are more critical than technical chops. I think this is a problem, particularly for the major tech companies that produce tech as the end product. If you are purely a "business leader" then the continued growth and even existence of the company is in jeopardy. Isn't the part of the job you mentioned better done by the COO or CFO?

3 ms·

Morris Chang wasn't some rando - he was a Group VP at Texas Instruments (reports to CEO) and COO of General Instruments (a major CMOS manufacturer from the 70s-

by alephnerd 2y ago

rmk 2y ago
Sheryl Sandberg does not have a technical background. A better analogy would be Eric Schmidt or Adam D'Angelo.
- alephnerd 2y ago
  Eric Schmidt sure, but not D'Angelo, as D'Angelo was never a C-Suite who climbed the ladder but was one of the earliest employees at FB when it was being built. At the C-Suite level - even at a deeply technical company like TSMC - the job is mostly investor relations and arbitrating between various business units internally, so while a technical background is nice to have, the business chops are more critical than technical chops. Look at Hock Tan at Broadcom for example - he started out as a line level EE in the semiconductor space (Malaysia is THE packaging and testing hub for semiconductors), but he is notorious for being extremely dollar driven (I've heard him unironically say "Show me the money" a couple times).
  - rmk 2y ago
    > At the C-Suite level - even at a deeply technical company like TSMC - the job is mostly investor relations and arbitrating between various business units internally, so while a technical background is nice to have, the business chops are more critical than technical chops. I think this is a problem, particularly for the major tech companies that produce tech as the end product. If you are purely a "business leader" then the continued growth and even existence of the company is in jeopardy. Isn't the part of the job you mentioned better done by the COO or CFO?