<story><title>Silicon Valley needs to stop laying off workers and start firing CEOs</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/fire-blame-ceo-tech-employee-layoffs-google-facebook-salesforce-amazon-2023-2</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>solatic</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re describing life under caretaker CEOs, which true to form are a self-fulfilling prophecy for mediocrity. The vast majority of large public CEOs are caretaker CEOs, and it&amp;#x27;s why working for large public companies can feel so slow and dreary.&lt;p&gt;But then you get turnaround CEOs, the ones the board hires because the company is in dire financial straits, who comes in, fires executives, sets new strategy, communicates openly and plainly across all layers of management and labor. Things can change &lt;i&gt;quickly&lt;/i&gt; under the right leadership.</text></item><item><author>supernova87a</author><text>It would be amazing if there were a silver bullet like this that everyone could identify the root cause of companies&amp;#x27; woes.   And could be reset by flipping a switch.&lt;p&gt;But I think it&amp;#x27;s much deeper -- having worked at a couple big companies now, I realize (at least to my limited observations) that the path of a company is set by the deeply ingrained culture that has been established over many years by its founders, by its evolution, its successive leaders, and in fact, the competitive environment in which it operates.  Things (good or bad) that last far beyond any one leader.&lt;p&gt;It manifests in the little incentives that people far below the CEO understand to do their jobs in a certain way, to pursue certain things and decide to drag their feet or ignore certain other things.&lt;p&gt;If you were hired at a company and worked there for years understanding that if you did &amp;lt;x&amp;gt;, you got &amp;lt;y&amp;gt;, it will be hard to change a whole workforce of that notion, especially when one individual gets beaten back in line if they stray.  Even if others want to change just as much.  Even if the CEO says to change.  It takes years for that info to percolate.  Sometimes it never does.&lt;p&gt;No, sometimes companies need to die in order to be reborn.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>danielmarkbruce</author><text>The same happens in companies led by founders. I&amp;#x27;ve seen it, and lots of people at google when under larry and sergey will tell you. People under Zuckerberg at FB, Bill G at MSFT, there are stories from all these places if you talk to folks who were there.&lt;p&gt;And they were all smart guys, courageous, right incentives etc. Large organizations are complicated. The post above is right - there is no silver bullet.</text></comment>
<story><title>Silicon Valley needs to stop laying off workers and start firing CEOs</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/fire-blame-ceo-tech-employee-layoffs-google-facebook-salesforce-amazon-2023-2</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>solatic</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re describing life under caretaker CEOs, which true to form are a self-fulfilling prophecy for mediocrity. The vast majority of large public CEOs are caretaker CEOs, and it&amp;#x27;s why working for large public companies can feel so slow and dreary.&lt;p&gt;But then you get turnaround CEOs, the ones the board hires because the company is in dire financial straits, who comes in, fires executives, sets new strategy, communicates openly and plainly across all layers of management and labor. Things can change &lt;i&gt;quickly&lt;/i&gt; under the right leadership.</text></item><item><author>supernova87a</author><text>It would be amazing if there were a silver bullet like this that everyone could identify the root cause of companies&amp;#x27; woes.   And could be reset by flipping a switch.&lt;p&gt;But I think it&amp;#x27;s much deeper -- having worked at a couple big companies now, I realize (at least to my limited observations) that the path of a company is set by the deeply ingrained culture that has been established over many years by its founders, by its evolution, its successive leaders, and in fact, the competitive environment in which it operates.  Things (good or bad) that last far beyond any one leader.&lt;p&gt;It manifests in the little incentives that people far below the CEO understand to do their jobs in a certain way, to pursue certain things and decide to drag their feet or ignore certain other things.&lt;p&gt;If you were hired at a company and worked there for years understanding that if you did &amp;lt;x&amp;gt;, you got &amp;lt;y&amp;gt;, it will be hard to change a whole workforce of that notion, especially when one individual gets beaten back in line if they stray.  Even if others want to change just as much.  Even if the CEO says to change.  It takes years for that info to percolate.  Sometimes it never does.&lt;p&gt;No, sometimes companies need to die in order to be reborn.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nomel</author><text>I experienced two turnaround CEOs, and they were the ones that did all the firing. One let the company bleed away headcount until it became desirable for a buyer.</text></comment>