Overpaid CEOs Need to be Disrupted

In an era of the sharing economy, shared leadership, increased collaboration at work and in tech companies, it no longer makes sense that CEOs are so over-paid. It goes counter to Millennial values and has to be changed, it goes counter to every idea of fairness, equality and corporate social responsibility in neo-capitalism.

In the future, I expect how CEOs are compensated for their work will become far more regulated with caps and with data, analytics, machine-learning and democracy, not elitist boards, who will decide on what a CEO is truly worth. Transparency, accountability and congruence. But the current reality, is still stuck in the past. 

CEOs no Longer as Valuable 

The great arrogance of leaders and CEOs is that they believe they are irreplaceable. I've seen it first hand, mediocre leaders who believe they are special. Why would not they be drinking the koolaid?

With a bit of charisma, startup CEOs can dupe incubators, investors, angels and VC and even their own employees with big promises, business development and VC hacking, to turn a quick profit. All of this with a startup that is destined to fail. 

Why would not they be drinking the koolaid? Indeed, top CEO can make up to 300 x + that of their employees. There really isn't any legitimate reason why they would make so much more, there's no shortage of leadership.  

With more work analytics and which technology will show, Big data will demonstrate, it's not a leader that makes a company profitable. There are far more salient variables at play. The company culture has to come first, engaged employees are at the heart of innovation, not leaders with padded pockets. The reality is, with technology, the actual value of CEOs is decreasing exponentially. 

That CEOs should be paid like all-start athletes is becoming a legacy idea and the kind of elitism that is seriously damaging to big tech companies and hugely demotivating as a social norm in the corporate environment. To put it more colloquially, will the greedy capitalists ever get disrupted, so we can build a better world that's more fair?

It's also part of the problem of a corrupt venture capitalist and aging Silicon valley big-boys club. Co-founders are invaluable, but companies evolve, leaders get disrupted too. For example, I recently read: 

Yahoo will soon be sold, and Marissa Mayer will get $55 million to cushion the fall. Great for her, but is it even ethical?

In 2016, CEOs that make 100 times that of their employees are common. But do they deserve it and does a pyramid system hurt corporate culture more than it rewards talent?

Leadership talent is contextual, your history of success or number of years in management should not factor too heavily into the equation. Being agile, innovative and managing people in a way that inspires them is the real deal-breaker of quantum leadership. However, this does not mean you should be entitled to millions of dollars. 

Agile leadership is an organizational quality, when the person at the top is over rewarded, the entire corporate culture suffers. 

Startup leaders seem to think you have to be like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs to lead. But above all, you have to be congruent and accountable to the people you lead. If your salary isn't transparent and if you are greedy, it will create less engagement in your entire culture and this hurts profitability as it undermines trust at a fundamental level of your customers and your employees. In short, it sabotages culture and reduces sales. 

Millennials recognize, wealth inequity is perhaps the most serious problem of our times. This is a problem that is scaling in an order of magnitude beyond our worst nightmare, wealth inequity undermines democracy and exaggerates individuals to such a degree, that makes empires crumble and corporations implode from the inside.

The average CEO makes astronomically more than their average employee. If this isn't capitalism gone foul, I don't know what is. Before the bubble bursts, a lot of corporate fraud continues, business as usual with zero accountability. 

Silicon Valley as an institution of Elitism 

The Silicon valley game of overpaying CEOs, is a bit like Hollywood, it's a patriarchal led game that has little bearing or respect for corporate social responsibility, integrity, sustainable values and authenticity in the corporate world.

These kinds of policies hurt Millennials, GenZ and women, who statistically make less than men and are customarily penalized for being mothers. In an age of elitism, can corporate social responsibility and sustainable values change dinosaurs and humanize unicorns?

These top 10 tech CEOs make more than $20 million a year. But what is the corporate culture cost of their exaggerated value and supposed market worth?

The Age of Tech Visionaries is Over 

These are not the heroes we once looked up to, we are beyond that. These are just people who managed to get into these highly valuable positions. However, as Big data becomes more key to business strategy, CEOs I argue, are totally replaceable. Increasingly machine learning and AI will influence how companies are managed. 

Overpaid CEOs are also one of the main complaints of Millennial employees when trying to work in a jacked and corrupt system. Corporate boards, customarily a male-led institution, unilaterally decide how much a CEO is worth.

We are so proud of companies that have over 25% women led boards, but this just goes to show the relationship of sexist environments with a lack of accountability and commitment to corporate social responsibility. The era of idol worship is over, few CEOs truly inspire anymore. 

Patriarchy in Venture Capitalism 

Venture capitalists, mostly men, invest in companies and CEOs they believe in. It's no great wonder then why there is such a discrepancy and ethical mismatch in corporate culture and the profiteers that create a back-stabbing corporate culture. It's still a man's world. 

If you think women in leadership roles or STEM is bad, it can't be worse than women in Venture capital positions. Thus, the entire system is skewed to a lack of value based accountability. The American dream, is likely a myth created by men for men. All of which fuels elitism and this damaging cycle of the richer getting richer and control more of our assets, multinational corporations and by defacto our government, politicians, policies, legal system, panama papers loop holes etc...

Capitalism at its most Corrupt 

The inequality of the salaries of CEOs is symbolic of the demise of the middle class, where we are serfs and masters once again. 

Ask any Millennial why they mistrust banks, politicians or big corporations, this is the underlying reason. It's peculiar how overpaying CEOs perpetuates a rising high-net worth class in society, which feels more like feudalism than democracy. Over rewarding leaders at the top of the pyramid perpetuates a lack of corporate social responsibility, which is ultimately bad for business, because it's a mismatch with the Millennial consumer, the key demographic of the public in the years to come.  

How do you feel about CEOs making a sizable share of a company's profits? It is fair or a systemic problem for the new value system that is re-shaping corporate culture?