The biggest fear is that the hatred expressed in social media posts about Thompson—and glorification of 26-year-old shooting suspect Luigi Mangione—will lead to copycat attacks, says Bill George, a former Medtronic CEO and executive fellow at Harvard Business School. “People are in disbelief that they would be making this kid into a hero,” he told Fortune.
Fortune reached out to dozens of CEOs this week to get a sense of how they’re reacting to this moment. The majority declined to comment. We are quoting anonymously those who did respond, to allow them the freedom to give us their most candid answers. These have been edited for length and clarity. Some have previously been reported by Fortune.
— “The disconnect between public perception and personal humanity has been striking, with some commentary bordering on dehumanizing. This highlights the critical need to humanize leadership and address the pressures faced in high-visibility roles.”
— “When I was growing up, CEOs didn’t make millions more than everyone else in the company. I think we have to reflect on why there’s so much anger and do something about it.”
— “I think we’re living through very seriously dangerous times where we’re normalizing antisocial behavior and normalizing violence on both extremes—on the far right, and on the far left. We basically moved, over the last 10 to 12 years, to a world that I don’t recognize. It’s very scary … I do understand that there’s enormous amounts of injustice and that we need to bring everybody along, and there’s a lot of things that we do, but I don’t think revolution is the answer to solving problems.” (a former CEO)
Yeah, I mean the quotes I pulled were the most self-aware wolves nonsense in the article, but the rest were basically either “we need more security” or “oh no the poors are onto us”.
I’ve never met a CEO or member of the ultra-wealthy that wasn’t either a sociopath, narcissist, or completely detached from reality. I’ve only met about a dozen of those kinds of folks but they all had that same vibe.
Not at all surprised. Just gobsmacked by how far they have their heads up their arses.
Edit: The only benevolent CEOs I’ve met have retired early and given their wealth away so that they have just enough to live out the rest of their lives in peace.
The rest are greedy narcissists and are extremely selfish, believe that being poor is a choice and love the thrill of taking advantage of people.
The biggest fear is that the hatred expressed in social media posts about Thompson—and glorification of 26-year-old shooting suspect Luigi Mangione—will lead to copycat attacks
“critical need to humanise leadership”
What about humanising your customer base? Humanising employees?
Yeah, I mean the quotes I pulled were the most self-aware wolves nonsense in the article, but the rest were basically either “we need more security” or “oh no the poors are onto us”.
I’ve never met a CEO or member of the ultra-wealthy that wasn’t either a sociopath, narcissist, or completely detached from reality. I’ve only met about a dozen of those kinds of folks but they all had that same vibe.
Are you surprised?
Not at all surprised. Just gobsmacked by how far they have their heads up their arses.
Edit: The only benevolent CEOs I’ve met have retired early and given their wealth away so that they have just enough to live out the rest of their lives in peace.
The rest are greedy narcissists and are extremely selfish, believe that being poor is a choice and love the thrill of taking advantage of people.
Last time I checked, he was a full grown 26 year old man who made his own decisions, not a “kid.”