It seems evident that the board was filled at least in part by people whose understanding of the business world and leadership skills is a tier or three below what a position of this level requires. One wonders how they got the job in the first place.

This is America. Practically anyone can start a nonprofit or a company. More importantly, good marketing may attract substantial investment, but it doesn't necessarily imply good leadership.

Clearly corporations are a dime a dozen. What's shocking is the disconnect between the standout quality of the technical expertise (and resulting products!) and the abysmal quality of leadership.

Really? I’ve always assumed (known) there is no actual difference between high level execs and you: they just think higher of themselves.

In fact, I think the way this has played out shows precisely the difference between competent and incompetent leadership. I think if anyone from, say, the board of directors of Coca-Cola was on the OAI board, it’s hard to imagine it would have played out in the same way.

If Reed Hoffman was still there, I can't see this happening. People here talk about "glorified salespeople" as an insult without realizing that having people skills is a really important trait for Boards/C level people, and not everyone has them

That makes as much sense as saying (knowing) that the only difference in basketball skill between you and LeBron James is that he thinks higher of himself.

You’re really likening running a company against the skills of a professional athlete? Put down the kool aid. CEOs are figureheads. Very few have ever had actual meaningful impact on the progress of their companies (or anything really) compared to their most talented engineers.

I’m done pretending they’re important. It’s a lie they and the boards have sold us and investors. The real meat of a company is who their smartest people are, and how much the company enables those people.

Pretty easy to see the difference if you consider between a company full of smart people who actually make things vs a company full of CEOs, which one will do better.

What you've likely seen of executives is 15 minutes of face time after 7 weeks of vicious Game of Thrones behind the scenes. It's a curated image.

That is the idea, keep GoT behind the scene. Don't dump it on the street. When you have a new king, make sure he isn't usurped next day and population is revolting outside the gates of Red Keep.