Can we turn it around and ask what we actually want from a (good) C-level. Cos I suspect it's not what most of us imagine.

At some point what we want from C-level is putting in place (bespoke) systems that achieve the "strategic" goals -

Is the monthly churn growing? Are you not able to get high touch sales to take off? Is the European product not ready?

All of those are the sort of "strategic" things people tend to hire CxOs for - but any good analyst can get you 80% of the way to identifying the problems, and then you have to pick a solution. At that point you are hiring someone for a very specific job with a clear roadmap. Maybe you can hire internally ?

Edit: on the other hand this article (from the frontpage) is an excellent example of hiring for a job, even though the person doing it is not going to be building the ditches etc. Walt hired for experience and focus on the job he wanted done. And as that job was going to have to be a negotiation with all the other agents building the park, he needed a high level advocate for the job (minimalmmosquitoes) he wanted

From this I suggest that hiring a CxO is hiring a person to act as advocate for the outcome you are hiring them for - very similar to politics

https://mousetrack.co.uk/blog/mosquitoes-at-disney-why-do-yo...