“Just how qualified are the people that reach executive levels of corporations and who have the ability to make these decisions?”
I’ve worked for some major corporations. Sometimes people are hired for important positions because they are no danger to the person above them. They aren’t competent and they only have the job because they are loyal. Then the person above them dies or moves on. Guess who gets the top job then. Those only hire incompetent people because now they feel threatened.
Then there are companies like Ford and General Dynamics, who hire and promote family even if that person has no interest, or talent, or intelligence, or experience. The competent people under them tend to move on when this happens.
Then there are goals and objectives the achievement of which cause chaos. A famous example was Kentucky Fried Chicken. They rewarded for the least amount of chicken thrown out. If it’s under the lamp for X minutes, it must be thrown out. AS the stores achieved a perfect score, they went out of business. That’s because they’d wait for someone to come in and order before cooking the chicken. Nobody wants to wait thirty minutes for “fast” food.
I worked for one of the big railroads. I was amazed at how incompetent and timid folks were when it came time to make decisions.