What's silly is the strawmen that are being thrown around. No one is arguing that biz types can't start/lead tech biz.
The claim is that the vast majority of non-tech people can't usefully evaluate tech people in time to do any good.
It's not unlike the complementary situation, technical people evaluating non-technical people.
As I pointed out, if tech people can't evaluate non-tech and non-tech can evaluate tech, something interesting is going on.
But, let's ask the question - do non-tech people think that tech people can evaluate non-tech people? If so, why do tech people think otherwise? If not, but non-tech can evaluate tech people, why the difference?
> EA - Trip Hawkins was a business guy, but somehow they dominate software.
Hawkins also always has a tech partner.
The same can be said for every other company on the list.
EA - Trip Hawkins was a business guy, but somehow they dominate software.
eHarmony - A good sized web based business with a doc at the helm.
McDonalds - Everytime you order a big mac anywhere in the world a bun, patty, slice of cheese, two pickles and a squirt of ketchup come out of inventory.
All of the airlines - May not lead to great business results, but they certainly know software.
And of course these from my earlier comment:
Walmart
FedEx
Disney
Bank of America
For all the people who think it is impossible for non-hackers to hire a hacker, why don't you comb through the Fortune 500 and prove your point, or write a program to do so.