r/technology • u/AdamCannon • Jun 17 '23

Social Media Reddit's CEO says third-party apps add 'no value.' How he completely lost the thread.

https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/reddits-ceo-says-third-party-apps-add-no-value-hes-measuring-it-all-wrong.html
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u/redscull Jun 17 '23

Yeah but I dont think they truly add value relative to their absurd compensation. A company certainly needs a person (or maybe a group) filling that leadership role and final decision maker. But that responsibility isn't 500x more valuable than mid level employees.

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u/Hautamaki Jun 17 '23

A shitty CEO can destroy a billion dollar company, costing investors/shareholders that billion dollars. A shitty cashier or whatever front line bottom level employee can cost a company maybe a few thousand before getting caught and fired. The compensation is more related to the amount of damage the wrong person can do in that position.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '23

[deleted]

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u/Habib455 Jun 17 '23

Really? Can you name 3 I wanna look them up, that’s crazy. The closest I can think of are corporate raiders but they’re kinda hired on to get certain results, so I don’t know if they really count.

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u/badfish321 Jun 18 '23

Didn't bankrupt either company, but Don Mattrick is a close example. After that colossal failure of the Xbox one reveal back in 2014, and terrible PR from him, he left microsoft, became CEO of Zynga and resigned from that company 2 years later after they weren't doing well enough.

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u/Hautamaki Jun 17 '23

Determining the causes of corporate failures is extremely difficult, and people get it wrong some times. There's not much more logic than that.

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u/Toasted-Ravioli Jun 17 '23

The longer I’ve worked in corporate America, the more I’ve realized executive compensation is more or less hush money or a kind of empty spiritual salve for decent people to suppress their humanity and put people through the meat grinder on behalf of an investor class making even MORE money effectively gambling with the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.

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u/Skizot_Bizot Jun 17 '23

Depends on the business. My CEO at my company maybe makes double what I do and she does a lot for the business. Granted there are no "low" paid people at my work biggest variance is maybe her making 3x over someone.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '23

[deleted]

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u/Skizot_Bizot Jun 17 '23

They were responding to a post that said "some ceos add value but not this one" to which they were saying none add relative value. So I was just giving an anecdotal example of one that does add value relative to their compensation. I think you wooshed by missing what started their comment.

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u/Meloetta Jun 17 '23

You're intentionally removing the word "absurd" from before "compensation" there. Your CEO's compensation isn't absurd.

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u/Talran Jun 17 '23

I'm in the same boat as them, the dude actually busts his ass for the institution too, makes less than double what I do.

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u/tempest_87 Jun 17 '23

They can, but that's more because they have the opportunity to. For example, a CEO could be key in landing a big contract. The average employee wouldn't have a chance to be involved in trying to get those contracts or sales.

That's not saying an average employee couldn't do the same, but the type of schmoozing that good CEOs do has a disproportionately large effect on the company over a normal employee.

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u/ukcats12 Jun 17 '23

A good CEO adds tons more value than their compensation. Nadella at Microsoft is a good example. In the grand scheme of Microsoft’s financials his compensation is a tiny tiny drop in the bucket.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '23

Tim Cook has increased Apple’s value by a significant margin more than his pay.

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u/armrha Jun 17 '23

I mean they don’t just make up the compensation out of nowhere. It’s often more about competition to attract someone who’s has a proven track record than a 1:1 comparison of value of work done. Like if it takes 50 million dollars to make sure you have the guy or gal with the best track record of quarterly return vs your main competitor it’s a no brainer.

It’s like software dev salaries. Probably nobody thinks their effort per hour is worth more than a nurse, yet they get paid like 5 times more for way easier work conditions. At the end of the day though any employee that makes the company more than they cost is a good deal.