Tell Me How This Ends observes a curious phenomenon among the so-called leaders of Clown World. The executive chair never even gets warm before they’re off again to “lead” yet another organization into disaster.
Something I’m seeing over and over again in the bios of “leaders,” especially of the girlboss-in-obnoxious-glasses variety, and read the “previously served” paragraph closely:
Julie Felss Masino was named President and Chief Executive Officer for Cracker Barrel in July 2023 and assumed the position, along with an appointment to the Company’s Board of Directors, November 1,2023. Ms. Masino previously served as the President, International of Taco Bell, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) from January 2020 to June 2023. From January 2018 to December 2019, she served as President, North America of Taco Bell. Ms. Masino served as the President, SVP and GM Fisher-Price at Mattel, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAT) from April 2017 to January 2018. Prior to her service at Mattel, Ms. Masino served as the President and then the Chief Executive Officer of Sprinkles Cupcakes from 2014 to 2017. From 2002 to 2014, Ms. Masino served in various leadership roles at Starbucks Corporation (Nasdaq: SBUX). She began her professional career in corporate positions at a variety of retail companies, including Godiva Chocolatier, Coach, J. Crew, and Macy’s.
If we count the two Taco Bell jobs as one job, that’s at least eight companies and jobs in about three decades of work. Leading a brand “from April 2017 to January 2018” strikes me as a warning signal, not a sign of strength. If you name this person to lead a business, she’s going to do it for…a couple of years? Maybe? You’re not going to get stability and a sustained market strategy that takes your company forward over the course of the next decade or two; you’re going to get fourteen to twenty-three months of buzzwords, and then a parachute. I’ve worked for people like this. We’ve all worked for people like this.
See also the current Superintendent of Police in New Orleans, who came from a short tenure as the police chief in Oakland, California:
Prior to her tenure in Oakland, Kirkpatrick served as Bureau Chief in Chicago, where she was the liaison to the Department of Justice (DOJ) while the Chicago Police Department was under investigation for patterns and practice of civil rights violations, resulting in a consent decree. Kirkpatrick also served as Chief of Police in the cities of Ellensburg, Federal Way and Spokane, all in the State of Washington, as well as serving as Undersheriff of the King County Sheriff’s Office.
A cop who works as a senior leader for seven different police departments: a sign of maturity, depth, and commitment? Or a wind that blows through the office on its way to somewhere else? Why on earth does a mayor say, Oh, I want our city to be this person’s seventh police department!
Here’s a fawning profile of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson:
In the 17 years following her graduation from law school, Jackson held a variety of legal jobs. She attained three federal clerkships, worked at four elite law firms, and served two stints with the Sentencing Commission. While much of that experience is typical for a Supreme Court short-lister, one line on Jackson’s resume is not: her mid-career decision to spend two years as a public defender.
It’s really impressive that she “worked at four elite law firms.” For example, “Jackson then snagged a highly sought-after spot as an associate at Miller Cassidy Larroca & Lewin, a Washington litigation boutique…Jackson left Miller Cassidy after a year for a third clerkship.” She often served at law firms, or in government jobs, for as long as two years. She was just that good, you see, so she never lasted anywhere.
This is the pirate class. These are Clown World’s mercenaries that it uses to keep the corpocracy and other organizations in line, moving from job to job and instituting insane policies that can’t possibly work and making radical changes to brands that will only serve to reduce their value.
These are not successful people, to the contrary, they are every bit as manufactured and propped up as their counterparts in the media. When you talk to executives of this sort, it’s less their lack of intelligence that strikes you as their level of ignorance concerning things you’d assume they have to know just to even do their job. It wouldn’t even be remotely surprising if Ms Masino not only didn’t know how to write a business plan, but couldn’t even read a balance sheet.
And these are the people who will always get the job over the qualified candidate who has worked his way up from inside the company or the police force. Because it’s not about competence or organizational success anymore, it’s about having a proven willingness to follow even the most ridiculous and obviously destructive orders.