[Sigia-l] RE: Sigia-l Digest, Vol 16, Issue 30

[Trenouth, John]

> 1) There are plenty of big CEOs who began their careers as engineers, 
> marketers, salespeople, and even as manual laborers. 

Obviously there are always exceptional individuals who transcend.  I'm
not saying it is impossible that an IA could become CEO.  I'm simply
saying that the claim of IA CEOs in software and media as a trend is
delusional.

(and honestly, can you name any manual laborers who are now CEOs or
software or media companies?)
   
> That's exactly my point. A young IA who over their career works on 
> bigger and bigger projects...

Bigger and bigger *IA* projects, sure.  But IA projects are almost
always sub-components of larger projects.  This results in a necessarily
more limited exposure to learning experiences and opportunities crucial
to leading and selling a public company.  Making the leap from
taxonomies to M&As and investor relations is a really big one.

> In 5-10 years, I think that most big media and software companies 
> will value user experience design as an essential corporate value. 

Just because IA is an important aspect of design, and the user
experience is becoming a more important part of attracting customers,
doesn't mean that we'll start seeing IAs becoming CEOs.  Restaurants,
perhaps more than any other business, are all about the experience.  So
we should have seen a trend in AI opening up restaurants--perhaps I
missed that one.

> And that's the opposite of my point. That's like saying that 
> Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard's engineering experience was 
> incidental to the success of HP, or that Larry Page and Sergey 
> Brin's programming skills were incidental to their leadership 
> of Google.

Those are absurd analogies.  These individuals all had formal expertise
in the subject matters their companies later capitalized on.  IA has no
inherent subject matter (other than IA itself).  

Its a lot easier to start with either subject matter expertise *or*
business expertise, and gain the other.  It a whole different ball game
to start with neither (as an IA would). 

Michael Eisner (your example) started with subject matter expertise, and
work up through the ranks managing people and consequently gaining
management experience and credibility.  He didn't start off as a Chef
(remember how important the customer experience is in the restaurant
biz) with the goal of one day becoming a media CEO.  Again, while not
impossible, I doubt we'll see a spate of chefs suddenly running media
and software firms.

> As these industries continue to evolve into intractive, 
> on-demand, mobile, and other buzzy/convergent inevitabilities, 
> a leader who understands the user experience and the challenges 
> involved in innovating them may be a little more valuable than 
> a leader with a background in artist management, broadcast 
> programming, and film production. 

Agreed, but this still does not necessitate nor even favor having an IA
as CEO.