Are CEOs bad people?

They are paid the way they are to be responsible for the company in all ways.

That also means following the law in regards to anyone who is employed by them, or appointing people whose job it is to do that and to make sure they do their job.

but it wouldn't make him a bad person necessarily (unless he had full knowledge and chose to do nothing or pushed for a illegal practise) Just a bad CEO. That applies for any CEO or manager or person imho.
 
Depends on the makeup of a company if they're just the public face. They're still ultimately responsible.

In his case there's no escaping the news articles about the treatment of workers down the line. However if it hadn't been publicised I wouldn't expect him to know about it considering how large Apple are there's no way he could micro manage everything. It would be down to whomever is micro managing that aspect to inform him.

Are we talking about Apple directly or the second party Foxconn?
 
AlecR said:
Is Tim Cook a bad person because he allows his company to abuse his workers? Does he even know?
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The 'abused' workers don't work for Apple.

They work for the same companies that manufacture a rather surprisingly large amount consumer electronics. You'll be hard pushes to find someone that does not or has not owned something manufactured by Foxconn or Petagon et al.
 
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Don't think there is a straightforward answer to that. They do however have a certain amount of responsibility in matters like that.
 
I guess the only thing that annoys me is when CEOs are challenged on their clearly overly generous and unmeritocratic salaries they always say "I have a lot of responsibility, the buck stops with me" but as soon as a scandal breaks in their company they are quick to distance themselves from it and cling onto their jobs on the basis it was caused by "a bad apple" [pardon the pun] and they were "unaware of any malpractice".
 
Some people are bad people, and some people are good people.

I'm not sure how you can decide whether holding a certain position makes them bad or good. There are undoubtedly personality traits that exist in 'CEO material' to allow them to get to that point and stay there, but I don't think they are all out kicking tramps for fun at the weekends and laughing at poor people.

If someone is going to promote themselves as the public face of the company they head up then it's quite right to associate them with any wrongdoings of the company (in as much as it should be them that answers the tough questions from the press), but it doesn't mean it was their fault.
 
Ignoring the Tim Cook comment, CEOs and Directors don't get where they are by making friends.

Unless it's their own company which they have form and developed, it's fair to say they would know how to handle themselves in a "business" environment and have climbed over a few to get there.
 
AlecR said:
Is Tim Cook a bad person because he allows his company to abuse his workers? Does he even know?

Are CEOs bad people and thus should be blamed for all that is wrong with their company or are they just figureheads?
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For my actual serious reply:

CEO's are merely puppets of the share holders. It's the shareholders pressure on the company to maximum wealth for them selves.

It's the shareholders individual wealth concerns that drive these decisions. So no the CEO is not a bad person, they just mirror what is going on in society at the moment in general.

You will not find many share holders that would rather have less wealth in exchange for a few extra $ for thousands of Chinese workers because quite simply they do not care about them.
 
OPs opening question is so loaded if the police pulled it over and breathalised it, it would be banned from driving for life.
 
1% of the population are psychopathic but various studies have shown that up to 10% of people working at the top of fortune 500 finance are psychopathic.

Jon Ronsons book "The Pschopath test" is a fascinating and funny look into the world of psychopaths who don't commit crimes but live and operate around us.
 
This is the sole review on Glassdoor for the company I work for.

"“Why (Most) Psychopaths Don't Make Great CEOs ”"

Pros: Nice people in most areas

Cons: The CEO suffered from Inconsistent Management Styles, Erratic Behaviour and Delusions of Grandeur

Advice to Management: Change the CEO

Make of that what you will.
 
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