Yes for some products they might not get fired but their professional reputations are ruined. To be honest, I've seen execs get replaced (shuffled internally downward) after bad projects (large delays, overbudget). For failures in implementations in things like ERP upgrades/migrations which are multiyear and go into double digit millions, these are F500-1000 companies so executives are known failures can become public or even litigated. No one wants to be the CTO/CFO who went for a risky vendor and have it blow up. There is nothing to gain and much to lose cause failures are pretty rare but not unheard of.