The snake came in today dapper as always dressed in his expensive navy suit.

What are we doing today ?

Listening to this big CEO and his “United States of ME.”

He puts everyone on emotional quicksand.

Perfunctory management of human capital. Guy is great in the waste management department.

“He is so transparent in his self interest that I kind of respect him.” [quote borrowed from The Big Short movie]

Sounds like anyone you know ? (Any resemblance to actual characters is coincidental)

What are we doing today ?


1. Squeeze him into a tight corner. How ? Throw him a challenge. If he doesn’t perform at [this] parameters, if the company is not [as this point] in 180 days, he’s fired. If his contract allows it. A lawyer needs to be hired to take a close look at the agency authority granted to the Board of Directors

2. Trip him over. A charming asshole is bound to make a mistake. Lend him a hand !

Max, I get the point, but how do I bait an a-hole ?

3. I think you’d need to be well acquainted with him, at least C-level suite. Member of the inner circle or close confidant. If you are a shareholder, you’d have to have gathered enough votes to push the Board to act.

4. Most things in life are a question of timing and precision. The role of chance is much higher than commonly admitted. Chaos is in fact, the natural state of the universe. It is natural for CEOs to say they are anointed even as they did nothing but ride the good times.

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5. Overconfidence is commonplace among CEOs. However good overconfidence is in the short term, it does more harm than good in the longest term. Golf is sport beloved by many. Drawing a parallel to golfing, overconfidence in sport “will likely make innacurate attributions for errors and fail to learn from their mistakes (Horgan. 1992).(Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology: Bridging Theory and Application By Dr. Jamie E. Robbins, PhD, Dr. Leilani Madrigal, PhD)

6. “The gambler’s fallacy” (aka the Monte Carlo fallacy) is “the mistaken belief that, if something happens more frequently than normal during some period, it will happen less frequently in the future, or that, if something happens less frequently than normal during some period, it will happen more frequently in the future (presumably as a means of balancing nature) -(Wikipedia)The gambler who, after losing several hands, keeps on playing thinking a win is around the corner to even things out is an example of it. In reality events are independent of one another. If the CEO has this “gambler’s fallacy”, ruin is not far behind.

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