Fat Cats: The Strange Cult of the CEO

Paid a fortune, lavished with lucrative share options, pension schemes, and huge bonuses, the chief executive officer, better known as the CEO, is a modern phenomenon. Shareholders, the media, and even the government are now questioning the charmed existence of these Olympian figures. Gideon Haigh investigates the whole cult that has grown up around the CEO, questioning why we need him, why a man almost always holds the position, what the CEO’s actual duties are, and why he is paid so much more than the rest of the workforce. In a tough-minded, vigorous demolition job on the culture that produced the cult of the CEO, Haigh writes a mini history of business and shows how the traditions of capitalism are mocked by the managerial system of the present. This humorous and incisive essay demystifies the world of big business. The cult of the CEO has never been exposed so entertainingly or irreverently.