I agree that there is a tremendous amount of dissonance in the ideas that executives deserve massive compensation and that they don't have much control over such gargantuan organizations. The way I resolve this dissonance is by not buying into the idea that corporate executives as a class are worth their extreme compensation packages.

Humans seem to have a soft spot for narrativization, and it's easiest to pin a narrative on the chief of an organization. But it's my belief, and I think the evidence doesn't contradict it, that these narratives usually have little to do with the causes of changes in organizational fortunes, particularly in the case of conglomerates.

"But Steve Jobs!"... Well, few CEOs are Steve Jobs. None, actually...