I've been working at a multi-national corporation for the last 5 years (and a little more) and your description fits perfectly with what I observed. Also, sometimes the execs leave a couple of years after they start/initiate a new project (before it finishes) presumably using that as their achievement point (although the project they started isn't even finished and eventually fizzles out once they move to the new company) in their CV to their new employer. After seeing that for 2-3 times, I realized that some of these upper management people only start these overly-ambitious (impossible) initiatives just to gear up for their eventual move.