Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ravenstine 8 days ago
> CEOs are also Fall Guys. A fall guy is the person who takes the blame when the whole thing falls apart.

Do you have an example of this? The usual criticism of CEOs is based on the exact opposite; that we are the fall guys, and that CEOs usually profit (and are rarely punished for) their own failed decisions.

Looking back at all the companies I've worked for, I can't think of one time a CEO actually suffered blowback for serious mistakes. The closest would be Steve Jobs having been let go from Apple, but that was in 1985 and he wasn't even the CEO back then.
2 comments
999900000999 8 days ago
Maybe this is more of a startup thing , but i remember the CEO personally apologizing to all of us when we shut down.

The buck stops somewhere.

link
ravenstine 8 days ago
Yeah, it's probably different when the CEO is a founder in some way. As an organization scales, leadership is replaced with non-founders, and blame becomes diffused, the nature of the C-level is just not the same.
link
johnnyanmac 5 days ago
It's not as insidious as the name implies, but it does happen. Sometimes a CEO is brought in for 2-3 years to clean house, take bad PR, then move oh for the next CEO to come in with a clean slate. This happens often; IIRC this is happening with the starbucks CEO who is more or less there with the goal to union bust and layoff.

I say it's insidious because they still get paid millions and have an excellent exit package. And it's not like it tarnishes their resume either (said CEO has done the above consistently).

link