The Parkinson law

According to Parkinson law (nothing to do with the disease), the more a company grows, the more it employs overpaid incompetents. Why is that? The researches tends to show that the current people in power want the good of the company. But they also want to remain in place. Highly paid jobs to be in meetings all day make plans that others will implement, travel... do you blame them?

So those executives, consciously or not most of the time, hire people that they are sure they won't become competition. The best way to avoid potential fights against rivals is to hire people that are technocrats and good at what they do. But not good enough to bring themselves (and the company) to the next level. In other words, they hire incompetent people. This is a safe strategy to stay in place. And once hired, the best way to make sure that they won't shake the can is to overpay them. Therefore the fear of loosing a well paid job for the amount of work required of them will prevent any... unwanted behavior.

There is nothing more frightening in a enterprise than a innovative spirit. I am not talking about start ups here. I am talking about huge well established organisations.

And once again I live to tell. I remember going into an interview for a job at such a big company. At one point the guy (who would have been my boss) asks me the classic question "where do you see yourself in three years in the organisation?" I was young, stupid and innexperienced. And I wanted to show how much I was ambitious. So I answered "I wouldn't mind having your job..."

Baaad answer!

I could see the astonishment in the guys' eyes. I didn't get the job. And a few years later, with more experience under my belt in management and more experience on the other side of the table (aka me employing people)... I can tell now that there were not only astonishment in the guys' eyes. There were fear too.

I'll conclude with this quote from Atlas Shrugged:

"Any man who's afraid of hiring the best ability he can find is a cheat who's in a business he doesn't belong. To me - the foolest man on earth, more contemptible than a criminal, is the employer who rejects men for being too good."

- Atlas Shrugged

The moral of the story. Be careful to select your generals (managers, partners, collaborators) well. Make sure you surround yourself with high achieving people who tends to belong with high achieving people themselves.