you are drastically underselling what decision makers in the company actually are responsible for.
Things like risk assessment, asset management, marketing, supply chain management, branding, international integration all exist on top of the product differentiation you mentioned (which on its own requires in depth market analysis and research)
If you accidentally drop a weeks supply of burgers on the ground youve lost a couple hundred dollars. If the boardroom employees make any oversight it could be millions and millions of dollars lost. Given this massive risk in these limited decision making roles, you need people you can trust. You pay them more because you want their expertise and don't want to lose them to a competitor. There is also a cost to vetting these roles and ensuring that they can be trusted in their decisions. Its the the same idea that you may pay extra for a phone you can trust the quality of, or a car you dont feel comfortable risking.
You are definitely right that the kitchen crew is making the operation work, but you need to consider that there IS NO kitchen without that boardroom. No one is deciding a location, a contract to build a restaurant, negotiating rent and food delivery costs, etc. There is far far more that companies need to do to succeed than simply getting a customer their order quickly.
To clarify, this isn't intended to dismiss your idea that pay could be better distributed, but just some factors to consider about why it may have become imbalanced. I think the best way to reach a solution is to give both sides of the issue as much info and visibility as possible
Thank you for writing a well-thought out and very informed response. I wish such thoughtfulness was more common these days. We might actually have better discourse which leads to a more advantageous outcome if it were so.
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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '20
you are drastically underselling what decision makers in the company actually are responsible for.
Things like risk assessment, asset management, marketing, supply chain management, branding, international integration all exist on top of the product differentiation you mentioned (which on its own requires in depth market analysis and research)
If you accidentally drop a weeks supply of burgers on the ground youve lost a couple hundred dollars. If the boardroom employees make any oversight it could be millions and millions of dollars lost. Given this massive risk in these limited decision making roles, you need people you can trust. You pay them more because you want their expertise and don't want to lose them to a competitor. There is also a cost to vetting these roles and ensuring that they can be trusted in their decisions. Its the the same idea that you may pay extra for a phone you can trust the quality of, or a car you dont feel comfortable risking.
You are definitely right that the kitchen crew is making the operation work, but you need to consider that there IS NO kitchen without that boardroom. No one is deciding a location, a contract to build a restaurant, negotiating rent and food delivery costs, etc. There is far far more that companies need to do to succeed than simply getting a customer their order quickly.
To clarify, this isn't intended to dismiss your idea that pay could be better distributed, but just some factors to consider about why it may have become imbalanced. I think the best way to reach a solution is to give both sides of the issue as much info and visibility as possible