Your analogy makes all other employees look like mind less cogs,who can have no idea's of their own.No CEO can succeed without a good team. Which begs the question , if yahoo makes 150M more, does she deserve 2/3rd's of that new money? Is Marissa the only person who has a winning perspective or a sense of direction in a firm of more than 10000 people? What we see here is the trickle down effect and people closer to the money paying themselves first. It is also true that a bad ceo ( thompson, bartz) can do more damage to a large company like yahoo than the benefits a good ceo can bring. The board has swung for the fences cause it has shot itself in the foot many times. A lot of this money , is for Marissa to NOT screw up yahoo like her predecessors. Even if she just keeps the engine chugging along at an average pace, the board will be relieved. edit: Grammar

Somehow I think that if the ordinary employees weren't told they'd be fired for doing what they think is right instead of what their bosses order them to do, they could run things just fine themselves. Only the rulers think you need rulers.