What's with executives?

Often I catch myself when I find myself often using a word, as I ponder, what does this word actually mean? And the word "executives" is one I use a lot, and see used quite a bit, where a variant is "suits" and it has me pondering--what does that really mean?

So I'm going to toss out what I think an executive is: a person with a decision-making position of authority within a corporation whose job is to help manage a company or companies and maximize profits. While non-profits technically have "executives" as well, it's much harder to evaluate executive performance without the profit measure.

So music executives would be the people in charge at some music corporation, like a record label, and I'm thinking most people get this word right.

And tech executives would be the people in charge of running a tech corporation. 

Notice executives run corporations. Managers and bosses can be at corporations or also at other businesses. People would probably call a small business owner a boss, and not a manager, and said person would not be an executive, unless the business were incorporated. Incorporation can be important to limit legal liability.

Now then, can wonder, what's with these executives in tech and the entertainment industry?

Already talked more than once about entertainment executives including this link, and actually am thinking this morning about tech.

For me, one of those things that gets me really suspicious is when I use a product and discover it doing weird things, which gets me wondering: do the executives actually even use their own product?

Like with YouTube, which gave the seed for this rant, um commentary, have noticed when I am scrolling down through videos in My Subscription, the thing will suddenly make a huge jump down, which means I have to scroll back up to see what videos were skipped!

So I'm thinking to myself, do you think Larry Page would see that happen once, and do nothing about it? So I'm guessing to myself that Larry Page, who is the Chief Executive Officer at Google, which controls YouTube, has never seen that happen. Or I think too highly of him, and how he would react if he saw it.

Ergo, I come to the strong opinion that Larry Page, CEO of Google, does not scroll down through My Subscriptions on YouTube, which may be wrong, of course, as I don't know.

It could be my computer. I have a kind of old laptop still running an older operating system. It's slower than newer laptops, could that be it? Or is it my browser? Will have to check across multiple browsers.

(Um, it's fixed now. And yes, there's that debate in my mind, did I imagine it? No. Had noticed it for a while but just didn't say anything. Do you think Google noticed? Maybe. Wonder if Larry Page noticed? Well, not necessary, as some other Googler might have...and that's enough talking to myself. Glad it's fixed. ___JSH 4/24/15)

For me, seeing things where I strongly suspect executives don't use their own products is very important, so I look for them with a passion! That can lead to false positives, but it also can lead to advice! Search for those things, and do your homework. I'm not sure how to check my issue here, but it's in the back of my mind and maybe someday I will know.

And I'm kind of picking on Mr. Page here because he's one of the best CEO's out there from what I've seen. I'm sure he can take it. Also, why would I think he'd even see this post? So no worries about talking about him. It's not like he's some minor low-level person. He's famous!

Why is that a big deal, executives using their own products?

Well, if a company's own executives don't bother using its products, why should anyone else?

If they use those products, and don't fix problem areas for users, then what chance do you have?

After all, the executives are in charge. Oh yeah, and at many companies they wear suits. It's like a uniform. At some companies it screams at you--here be an executive! So that's why some people like to call them "the suits". But in tech companies that paradigm has shifted quite a bit. Which I think puts more pressure on executives and not less.

If you're going to act like you're the best of the best who can make your own rules, then your products must be as flawless as possible, or the other suits may snicker. Not sure on that last as am not a suit myself, so how would I know? Maybe I just added that just as a little jibe at certain famous tech executives who have sent a message by not in general wearing suits.

The challenge is to constantly prove you're better than the suits, or simply look silly.

The web is allowing increasingly close levels of scrutiny, but the best will just handle it, well, like a boss.

James Harris