Huh? If your manager dislikes you, consciously or subconsciously, you are screwed. I didn't know that was controversial.

This is how humans work, regardless of whether we like it or not.

It doesn't mean, however, that it is impossible to get the 100 most influential people in the company together. It just means that you can't do so by relying on the existing company hierarchy.

The easiest way is to randomly draw 10000 employees, then give them the opportunity to anonymously declare which employee they consider the most influential within their branch/location.

Top 100 voted "go to Disneyland".

Still, his interpretation is more plausible than expecting that the ghost of steve himself visits Tim Cook at night to tell him which 100 guys out of a workforce numbering over 80,000 really deserves that honor.