The Tragic Triumph Of The MBAs

Excellent article. Jon Evans laid it out the way its suppossed to be. Salsforce is an incredible company with a huge future, but saying that CEOs will suffer the same fate as violent, tyrannical dictators is ridiculous.

For one thing, these large firms have a natural system of checks and balances (see relation between CEO, board of directors, and shareholders). In almost all cases (assuming the proper precautions have been taken), a CEO can't just run amok being wild against the wishes of everybody else involved. These issues are typically resolved at the early, early stages with mild disagreements and a back and forth. More often than not, a CEO will step down due to this (let's see this happen in Syria or Libya..)

Secondly, these CEOs have and maintain power because people have given them power. People enjoy the products/services that their firms produce and continue to purchase them. Nobody is coercing users to hand over their money to these firms. This is a fundamental, excruciatingly important difference between the state and the firm.

I could go on for days, but I'll wait for somebody else to chime in.