An important part of an executive’s job is hiring the right people to execute, which requires some level of skill or networking in my opinion, even if results aren’t always guaranteed.
But the data here says there is no statistically significant benefit to picking an “in-network” (ie. Former McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Harvard, etc) executive. Which is the homogenous network that these people will continue to cultivate.
This data says the parochial boys club doesn’t deliver any difference from the average state-school “rose through the ranks” type of executive.
The person I was responding to was postulating what would happen if a janitor was made CEO, to which I am saying there are some important skills or experiences that not everyone will have.
I think they were being a bit extremist with their language to make a point. However, fun anecdote, at my high school one of the janitors was a multi-millionaire (we lived in a fly-over state in a small city, so he was crazy rich by our standards).
He made it all because he was extremely good at playing/investing in the stock market (he never had a professional job in his life). The economics teachers would invite him to speak to their classes on a regular basis.
