Why aren't we all multi-millionaire CEOs?

kav

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Just curious really - I've seen a common point of view expressed here and in real-life conversations that CEOs don't do much except sit on their arses and count their money. If that is the case, if they're nothing but greedy blaggers who have no idea how to run a company, then why aren't we all in such positions, running organisations and pocketing millions of pounds? :D
 
I have spent a few years in corporate media companies. Its easy enough to climb the ladder if you have a stomach for the politics and can stand out from the crowd. Personally, looking back, I find the idea of it abhorrent. Wouldn't go back to that, couldn't go back to that. From what I saw it was a race to get as senior as you could and stay there for as long as you could before an inevitable "reshuffle".
 
Well answering seriously.

(1) I suspect that most (if any) do nothing, sit on their backsides counting their money. I suspect that most have to work pretty hard, have poor work/life balance and are quite stressed. It's just that most of us don't understand the work they do, can't equate to it, so dismiss it as doing nothing.

(2) They don't come out of university and apply for CEO jobs. They have to work their way up (okay not from the bottom) and I suspect they have to work really hard and long at a real job, selling their souls to rise through the ranks.

It's very easy to criticise when they fail, but you could do that for anything. I could make a film that flops at the cinema. I could stand in front of the goal at the world cup and miss a penalty. I could run in the olympics 100m final and come last - does that mean I'm just as talented as the guy who will actually come last.

Please note - I'm not defending them. I think such people should be sacked in light of such big failures - I disagree with them being able to resign and slip away with big payoffs. Theresa May should go aswell.


Cheers,

Nigel
 
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Hi,

There's one other reason why most people don't go-on to become ultra-rich, CEO's...

... For most of us, we don't want to be seen as back-stabbing SOB's: parasites who will do anything to someone else, as long as it gets us slightly higher-up on the corporate ladder!

Now, (purely as an example that we have all heard of), Bob Diamond, may well have worked his arse-off to get where he is. He may well be a really nice bloke. He may also be a guy who is pleasant to be around, does his best and gets the best from others. And, he may even be a generous, charitable bloke on top of this.

BUT...

Even if that were all true, the impression he gives to the British Public, is of someone who doesn't give a damn about Joe and Jane Public. He comes across as arrogant, spoilt, a man who would do anything to anyone else, as long as it gets him higher up the career-path, and who will happily screw others over, if it gave him an advantage. And, then when things go wrong, they deny any knowledge of it, cover everything up, and have the gall to say "it's not my fault"! :mad:

Now, apply that same principle (of what these CEO's/Managers might be like, and how the public perceive them), and you start including names like Rupert Murdoch, Fred Goodwin, or Tony Blair onto your list, and you can soon see that it's not that the public have an axe to grind against hard-working CEO's, but that CEO's themselves don't seem to do themselves any favours to make us believe that they are decent people.

And we've not even mentioned, that they seem to think that Bonuses are an automatic entitlement, rather than something that is earned for doing good work. Nor have we mentioned that what they earn in a year, many people won't earn in a lifetime, and then you begin to see why these CEO's are so deeply hated.

I have no problem with anyone working hard for their wealth, (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Peter Jones), earning it, doing good and coming across like a nice person, but being a CEO and acting like a complete :censored: is only going to make people despise you.

Most CEO's come across as :censored: and not as decent people! Therein lies the problem!


Pooch
 
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i think owning your own company and working it up is very different to just being given the job. we need people who start companies and employ people for a country to work.

what annoys me is the amount of people who just seem to get high jobs by nepotism or just being in the right club (see our government). they are often the useless ones who ride high on the success of their minions. getting praise when the company does well and passing the buck when it does badly.
 
Liam,

I would also argue that we need CEO's with morals and integrity: the ability to be succesful, but also to know when they've overstepped the mark, or done wrong, and have the capability's to apologise (even if they don't mean it) to the public.


Pooch
 
What an amazingly, well-explained and thought-out post, Mr W! Must have taken you all of a microsecond to come up with that.

I agree with Mr Whistles.

How many CEO's do you personally know, or are you impressions based only on those who hit the tabloid's when something goes wrong?
 
One or more of the below depending on the person.


Not working as hard.
Not the right personality type.
Not clever enough.
Wrong place, right time.
Not in the right vocation.
Not prepared to alter our work / family balance.
Not really into playing "the game".
Not well educated enough to initially be considered.
Not a perfect match with company ethos.

etc.
 
^

What a load of crap.

Agreed , Pooch where do you come up with this tosh from?

How many CEO posts have you had? How many CEOs do you personally know?

Bob Diamond will be remembered by the people in his sector as the guys that turned Barclays around, and did more things for Barclays than just this LIBOR scandal.

I suspect his respect from peers/colleagues and those in the sector means more than what most daily mail readers think of him.
 
Too lazy.

Why would i want to live at the office, brown-nosing?
 
Jeez,

Agreed , Pooch where do you come up with this tosh from?

I think it through, look at the question posited, and then respond. Unlike Mr Whistles, who posts something's rubbish, which shows to everyone a really detailed amount of thinking and preparation has gone into his answer. The fact that neither you nor he have offered any actual evidence or answers, but just want to have another go at me, shows that you have no original thoughts to post in the first place.

Any idiot can post "What you said is crap". It takes some intelligence to come-up with an actual answer to the question being asked. Rather than deriding my thoughts, maybe you could come-up with something worth reading and post it for all of us to judge? Or are you worried that actually, you don't have any opinion to post in the first place, so just dump on what other people write? :confused: :rolleyes: :facepalm:


How many CEO posts have you had? How many CEOs do you personally know?

None and none. I suspect you have held zero CEO posts, and know no CEO's personally either. So, the point of your little attack on me, is what exactly, other than a pathetic attempt at scoring points, and trying to appear cleverer than myself?! :confused:


Bob Diamond will be remembered by the people in his sector as the guys that turned Barclays around, and did more things for Barclays than just this LIBOR scandal.

Wrong. BD will be remembered by some people for the guy that turned Barclays around. However, a far higher number of the general public will remember him as the head of the bank that was involved in the LIBOR Scandal!

Question: when Tony Blair's name is mentioned in the news, what's your first memory? Is it of the man who led Labour to their highest and most successful run in politics, or the warmongering parasite who took the country into an illegal war and dubious evidence?! I'll make a bet, it isn't the former!


I suspect his respect from peers/colleagues and those in the sector means more than what most daily mail readers think of him.

Yes, but we aren't talking about what his peers, colleagues, mates or family think of him, are we?! Or did you not read the question Kav posited?! (That's rhetorical, just in case you were worried, because you obviously didn't.)

To quote Sigourney Weaver in ALIENS: "Did IQ's drop sharply while I was away?"


Pooch
 
J


Wrong. BD will be remembered by some people for the guy that turned Barclays around. However, a far higher number of the general public will remember him as the head of the bank that was involved in the LIBOR Scandal!

Pooch

Read his post again Pooch, he clearly specified people in his sector, not the general public.
 
I agree with Mr Whistles.

How many CEO's do you personally know, or are you impressions based only on those who hit the tabloid's when something goes wrong?

Jeez,



I think it through, look at the question posited, and then respond. Unlike Mr Whistles, who posts something's rubbish, which shows to everyone a really detailed amount of thinking and preparation has gone into his answer. The fact that neither you nor he have offered any actual evidence or answers, but just want to have another go at me, shows that you have no original thoughts to post in the first place.

Any idiot can post "What you said is crap". It takes some intelligence to come-up with an actual answer to the question being asked. Rather than deriding my thoughts, maybe you could come-up with something worth reading and post it for all of us to judge? Or are you worried that actually, you don't have any opinion to post in the first place, so just dump on what other people write? :confused: :rolleyes: :facepalm:




None and none. I suspect you have held zero CEO posts, and know no CEO's personally either. So, the point of your little attack on me, is what exactly, other than a pathetic attempt at scoring points, and trying to appear cleverer than myself?! :confused:




Wrong. BD will be remembered by some people for the guy that turned Barclays around. However, a far higher number of the general public will remember him as the head of the bank that was involved in the LIBOR Scandal!

Question: when Tony Blair's name is mentioned in the news, what's your first memory? Is it of the man who led Labour to their highest and most successful run in politics, or the warmongering parasite who took the country into an illegal war and dubious evidence?! I'll make a bet, it isn't the former!




Yes, but we aren't talking about what his peers, colleagues, mates or family think of him, are we?! Or did you not read the question Kav posited?! (That's rhetorical, just in case you were worried, because you obviously didn't.)

To quote Sigourney Weaver in ALIENS: "Did IQ's drop sharply while I was away?"


Pooch

A simple none would have sufficed and spared us the death from a thousand smilies.

I prepared reports for Bob Diamond and sit outside the office of the CEO for my current investment bank.

Remind us what you do for a living?
 
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As sad as it sounds, but where I work I tend to find that the blatently obvious brown nosers seem to make their way up the organizational chart a lot more rapidly than everyone else, regardless of their ability or how good they are at their job.

These are the kinds of people I detest the most within corporations and businesses. :thumbsdow
 
Pooch, I'm not the one who is generalising all CEOs here. The CEOs I do know, both of FTSE listed companies, one in fact in the FTSE 250 soon to enter the FTSE 100 ,both are very well respected people in my industry. From what I know of them they didn't brown nose their way up. They worked bloody hard and still do to stay where they are. They personally get involved in meetings I have had with them and I can see why they got where they are.

Its not only an "idiot" that can post "what you said is crap" it's apparent that an idiot can post paragraphs of bull and think it's a show of his intelligence.

You haven't offered any evidence to back up your posts and then expect me to. I don't blame mr whistles for not writing anymore. To be honest your post wasn't worthy of anything else as its such bull, but I got suckered in.
 
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Remind us what you do for a living?

We have you for that!

You must have seen a fair few come and go in your sector. What does it take to get into the "chair" and is it about sticking it out for as long as you can before the inevitable? To be honest a younger version of me could live with 15 years of dog eat dog if I knew I would be sorted for life after that.
 
Then why aren't we all in such positions, running organisations and pocketing millions of pounds? :D

Because there has to be someone that's out ahead so that those who are motivated by ambition have something to aim for (or someone to aim at). And of course, the speed of technology means that a lot of the corporate perks of today are mainstream technology of tomorrow. I bet few people would opt for a executive car of 30 years ago over a £25-30k car of a similar size today. (it's just a shame the same doesn't apply to houses).

The gap is perhaps getting a little unreasonably large now (millions per year is fine, millions per week isn't) and too dependant on choice of career rather than capability or effort though.
 
Just remember what the actual thread question is.

It isn't asking whether they are nice and honorable people - you obviously aren't going to reach those heights by putting everyone else first.

But the question was asking, as these CEOs spend all their time doing nothing, counting thier money, why aren't we all doing it.


My response to the actual question, was that they have to work hard in their prior career to get to those positions. And even when they do I reckon it is much harder work then it appears.

But if you all think it is easy and doesn't involve any work at all, it does beg the response "go and do it then".

As for them all being incompetent - remember we are making that judgement based on a small number and only then when they fail. All those doing a good job and even the times when the bad guys were doing a good job are conveniently ignorred.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
I'd say its probably up there as one of the hardest things you could ever do. Hence why everyone isn't doing it!

100% agree. The level of pressure is absolutely immense. Of course their remuneration reflects this but I can honestly say that even for all that money I would not be able to handle that kind of role. The best guys have the ability to have a strategic vision for the entire organisation while at the same time being capable of getting right down to the minutiae of a specific issue. It's a scary thing when you are in their sights and they challenge you on something because unless you have it spot on, you are going to end up feeling like a numpty when they point out something that - once identified - seems totally obvious.

Also, as Nigel says, to even be considered for a role at that level you have to have a long track record of doing good stuff for the organisations you have worked for in the past. These guys aren't driven by money in the same way as regular folks - they're driven by success, and money is a byproduct of success. "Regular" people focus on the money part of their role and cry out "not fair!" while ignoring the enormous level of effort that it took them to get to where they are.

Forgive my tongue-in-cheek OP, I am fully aware of how difficult the role of a CEO is - just thought it would be an interesting topic for discussion.

(Incidentally, we recently had a CEO in to talk about his career, and he actually chuckled as if with relief when he told us that in the early years of his children's lives he was "fortunate enough to be travelling around Asia, America, and Africa" while his wife stayed home and raised the kids. This world view is so entirely removed from my own that I realised there is no way I am ever going to be cut out to make it at that level. And I'm okay with that.)
 
In a lot of companies hard work will only take you so far. You have to be friendly with those at the top and be prepared to get a dirty nose now and again.
 
(Incidentally, we recently had a CEO in to talk about his career, and he actually chuckled as if with relief when he told us that in the early years of his children's lives he was "fortunate enough to be travelling around Asia, America, and Africa" while his wife stayed home and raised the kids.

My son told me he loved me for the first time this morning (only took 2 and half years thanks son lol!). I couldn't live with missing moments like that for a shot at the corporate ladder. No thanks! I'd rather be skint but doing something I enjoy and fulfilling and making ends meet.
 

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