When people ask questions like “how can CEO compensation be so high for person X? There is no way they add that much value to the company”<p>What they forget is that even a CEO that adds little to no value over time, is phenomenally more positive for the baseline of a company than one who derails the entire company. And the fact of the matter is that it’s easy as a CEO to detail a company and 99.999% percent of people would likely do without ever thinking their actions or inaction was what caused it.<p>It can happen as innocently as just passively assuming that your CFO is fully capable of managing all the finances, or assuming everything is perfectly fine with your technology because “it’s just a simple thread mill” or by assuming that all media coverage is good media coverage so just ignoring how your brand is managed.<p>Now of cause everyone is thinking “I’d never do that if I was the CEO of a company”. But these are all the known examples you have in front of you, everyone things they be able to sail the titanic around the iceberg, even if they have no sailing experience at all, yet it wasn’t a random guy of the street who managed the ship when it happened. The important part is putting your attention on the right points. A CEO who is micromanaging the finances, the branding and the technology is also going to be a huge problem for a company. As a ship captain who spends 16hours staring after icebergs every day is also going to be ineffective. And there might be other potential bombs in other companies that need attention.<p>Point is that being a great CEO doesn’t always mean a 10X growth in value. Sometimes it even means just limiting a loss to 5% through a rough patch when most people would have let it go to 25% lost without, sometimes it means to not fumble the ball when life throws a huge opportunity your way. You know like selling personal exercise equipment when every fitness center closes down due to a global pandemic.
The CEO slides were absolutely brutal <a href="https://twitter.com/silviakillings/status/1491040849655959556/photo/1" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/silviakillings/status/149104084965595955...</a>
> Peloton is firing over 2,800 employees — 20% of its corporate workforce<p>Why does an exercise bike manufacturer employ ~14000 corporate people? Isn't that a bit much?
> With gyms re-opening as vaccine rates increased, Peloton's business took a huge hit: The company's market value has dropped from $50 billion last year to $9.8 billion as of early February 2022.<p>Did people not think that once covid is on the downswing people will exercise in gyms or go outdoors more? If we have such smart people going into finance why does this happen?
Who could’ve predicted that this might happen when the pandemic got under control? Just kidding, I’m sure many people predicted it (and made a lot of money).
related content: <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/peloton-ceo-john-foley-banned-staff-holiday-parties-then-held-his-own-incredibly-lavish-bash" rel="nofollow">https://www.thedailybeast.com/peloton-ceo-john-foley-banned-...</a><p>CEO held a holiday party for talent/trainers while encouraging thrift/cutbacks for all other employees
> As part of the severance plan for the over 2,800 laid off employees, Pelton is offering a curious benefit: A membership to Peloton.<p>Is that it? There's nothing more in their severance? I wish the article would explain this more.