He's back back back back again, y'all. Adam Neumann, the infamous CEO of WeWork, stormed the metaverse with news about raising $70 million for his new crypto start-up, Flowcarbon. The news raised some eyebrows and questions. What we are interested in is whether there is a place for an egocentric CEO in Web3?
Who doesn't love a success story? They pay well and inspire people. That's precisely why the media so eagerly turned CEOs into superheroes. Due to the recent start-up boom and the overflow of successful young entrepreneurs, this narrative sold well, thus creating a bubble of glorification and adoration of CEOs.
CEOs as Messiahs
The fame got to some peoples' heads and diverted attention from business goals to personal brand development. The trend continues today: even the scammers and failures get TV shows based on their stories, thereby adding fuel to this vanity bonfire.
With Web3 shifting the focus from CEOs to talents, we are granted the opportunity to avoid making the same mistakes and stop paying so much attention to the C-levels. After all, they are just employees, though, high ranked ones.
In Web2, senior executives are the ones responsible for everything, literally. They are supposed to take the fall even for actions made by their staff. Plus, they are the ones with the so-called "vision."
That's how Lew Platt, the late CEO of HP, described his position:
"The role of the CEO is to make the invisible visible and to manage the white spaces. The CEO is responsible for the sense of connectedness within the company".
In this worldview, a CEO is almost a spiritual leader, representing the company to the public and the investors, as well as uniting his subordinates.
Web3’s New Rules
Web3 world lives by other rules. The primary law here is code, and talents maximize profits, not charismatic seniors. Besides, the Web3 crowd doesn't need an individual responsible for a "sense of connectedness" — the product and the technology are the glue. Needless to say, the CEO is still a valuable position in a Web3 company, but the stakes for this role are lower than they used to be.
Neumann's grand entry into Web3 seems bizarre with all that in mind. Web3 is no place for a fraudulent magnetic leader, but investments speak for themselves. Flowcarbon has already launched the Goddess Nature Token (yes), a crypto token on the Celo blockchain to be borrowed or redeemed for an underlying real-world credit.
While we're waiting to see how this turns out, the Web3 continues. New ideas are created every day, and Web3 companies need talented people to develop great products. HUMANS is launching its networking platform on the 15th of June.
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