I thought I was taking crazy pills when I read that and started wondering where the world was headed. Im glad atleast the CEOs are expected to give answers.
- 'First-Order Measurement', Quality Software Management, Volume 2, Gerald Weinberg, Dorset House Publishing, 1993
It seems to me that there's a need for the Crowdstrike CEO to take responsibility, e.g. for lax testing and for not doing canary rollouts.
And it seems to me that there's a place for the [airline|bank|hospital] CEOs and CIOs to consider implementing canary 'roll-ins' where new software is tried on a small scale before being installed everywhere.
If you are working for public institutions, then it probably matters immensely. But if you answer only to shareholders, then its more theatre.
Reform of companies like BlackRock is sorely needed, the way they operate is detrimental to the actual owners of equity, and society at large.
Furthermore, most of the money managed by BlackRock is not managed by them through direct choice of the equity holders, so even if the equity holders were not happy with BlackRock it would be very difficult for them to move their money elsewhere.
And then finally, the shares of BlackRock itself are also held on behalf of others by institutions like BlackRock, and some of it even by BlackRock itself. So they vote with the voting rights of others as to how they think they should be run.
The professional managerial class generally does not care about profits, as they exceed at finding ways of enriching themselves without having to actually deliver anything. They get rich while the average Joe's pension underperforms. They love things like DEI and ESG, as that allows them to define their own parameters for success in ways which in no way benefit the people they have a fiduciary duty to or society.
Thanks for your informative response
Technically, if your investment does well, they have more assets under managemnt, and they earn a larger fee, but in practice they can just increase their rate because the people using them aren't shopping around anyway, and there will always be more money invested through them.
In reality, most people are paying BlackRock without ever knowing that they are paying them, and then in addition to paying BlackRock in money they get the benefit of your voting rights, which they can then do with as they see fit. They are power brokers who are paid by the people whose power they are brokering.