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Have you heard about the Peter Principle?

From Wikipedia: "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence", meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle

Knowing what somebody is not good at is almost as essential as knowing what people are good at. I guess both Ive and Apple know this.

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If you believe in the Peter Principle, you might be interested in the Gervais Principle (http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/) which uses characters from The Office to wax philosophical about organizational structure. At the very least, the first part is worth a read. It diverges from the Peter Principle in a number of thought-provoking ways.

Highly entertaining (and insightful), thanks.

There is a subtlety however. At most companies, you need less competence the higher you rise. What gets rewarded is playing the game, not competence.

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/rule-zero-how-things-reall...

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