The "who-you-happen-to-know" part is very true. It's a small world up there in the "upper" tier. While I generally agree to the implications of chance, has much to do with that inner circle and who gets picked to do the job.

No one is perfect, and the upper tier do not seem to have a solid understanding of this fact. People get picked because they can talk the talk or had some success at some point and that automatically decides they are good. Even failing can increase your prestige for reasons such as learned from failure or the blame gets shifted. However, I feel that it's all too often that the CEO failed to adapt and shifted blame.