[deehouie]

I heard this so many times. These goddamn CEOs are so myopic; all they care is next quarter's earnings. After the fall of every megacap, tech or otherwise (recently GE), someone always blames them for short sightedness. Is that really? Well, many CEOs of many huge corporations just plan for the next quarter, and they seem to be doing just fine.

[rossdavidh]

Well not all CEOs are so myopic; Andy Grove of Intel was not, for example.

Whether or not a next-quarter focus works, probably depends on the industry. In semiconductors, especially high-performance semiconductors, the R&D on manufacturing this year determines whether the design several years from now is able to be competitive, so there is a need to be more forward looking.

[dmix]

The average large corporation is typically in a stable/stagnant industry that is nowhere near as competitive as chips, where the stakes are 100x higher.

They get by being the largest kid on the block and few young companies chomping at the bit, and a series of B/C-tier competitors even dumber and poorly run that they can't even do the next quarter effectively.

Countless mega-corps are just floating by with the ebbs and flows of a market, burning off some early moment of success. Staying at the top longer than a decade or two (usually the timeframe where other market entrants take notice of your weakness) is the real test.

Otherwise just being a decent manager/leader that keeps the existing established business model chugging along and hiring slightly above average executives to put out fires is good enough.