Skip to main content

Age of the CEO

This is the age of the CEO. A lot of young hotshots are becoming masters of their domain before they even get a drivers license - well exaggeration but you get the point. Many are born as tech wonderkids or with a knack to sell almost anything to a gullible public. The public for their part has started retarding. Hence their ability to buy anything that gets advertised on television. They buy it because its on TV. Then there are those companies that start with a large bang only to fizzle as the stupor wears off the gullibles. Many a name comes to mind. Now the losers are the millions who invest in this enterprise. Not to put too fine a point but that brings to light the AGE of the CEO. Is it fair to assume that there is something in the old adage - I have been round the block? OR that I have seen a few too many seasons than you? Admittedly the prototype to production lifecycle has compressed with advances in technology and supply chain improvements where a new wave toaster can be assembled in China before your flight gets there. But that does not mean that the world really needs a new wave toaster or for that matter an advertisement for the same. So going back to the Age question - do you think that the Chief who is essentially a kid out of school or dropped out of school (school being a subjective metaphor for experience although they can be unrelated) is really a Chief? The financial media and companies that run the money machine including large banks are all for chasing the next sexy thing and in the process make a hero out of the underdog. Granted a lot of these young CEOs have top notch education credentials or have come from money so as to have a leg up on the competition but they do not necessarily sell a better cure for heamerrohoids (which is a real pain - I can attest). Their pitch is to convince the beholders to part with their cash. Hence beholdee beware!
Labels:

Comments

  1. RajendraAugust 20, 2012 at 7:51 PM

    Why not become a CEO? You can then advertise to your heart's content with the VC's money..and then declare Chapter 11 or whatever it's called.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Diamond HeadAugust 20, 2012 at 8:07 PM

    I will stick to chapters in a Ludlum or some such mindless book for sometime.. I have few more blocks to unblock.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
2 comments
Read more

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...
2 comments
Read more

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more