This past week witnessed some interesting corollaries
to what I call Donaghy’s Law:
*One tech mogul (whose surname rhymes with “Dusk”)
who laid staggering debt on the social-media company he acquired, terminated half
its workforce, and toyed with the idea of declaring bankruptcy—all within two
weeks of taking control;
*A second tech guru (whose surname rhymes with “Wahlberg”) who decided his social media company would transition to the
metaverse and bet heavily that e-commerce revenues would continue to climb, saw
earnings drop, told the 11,000 employees he was laying off that he would “take
accountability” for his disastrous corporate change in direction—and then did
no such thing;
*A third billionaire (whose surname rhymes with “Dump”), anxious to return to a political job he held until a few years
ago, who informed an interviewer a few days ago, with a straight face, about
the slate of candidates he’d endorsed: “If they win, I should get all the credit,
and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all.” (“Did I really just hear
that?” I thought to myself after the comment first aired.)
Whatever happened to the quaint notion of CEO
responsibility?
