Externally - absolutely they could be received poorly. It’s a very common outcome for clueless executives forcing themselves into areas where they have no domain knowledge.

Internally, most execs will use their sociopathic tendencies to spin it into some kind of an ego boosting success story. Otherwise companies would drop so many current day tech executives.

A big factor in keeping it tight with investors is posturing. It’s definitely more important than performance or business results. I don’t think most tech executives sweat about their actual performance outside of small companies.