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>From research done by research firms that study Fortune 500's - most CEOs are not "hired guns", instead they rose through the ranks of operations including COO roles. Yes, there are some whose background is more on the financial or general management area, but more CEOs come about from executive operational positions than executive financial positions.
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Why does rising through the ranks exclude the notion that a CEO is a "hired gun?"

Jack Welch, who started as a chemist at GE, made hundreds of millions for himself without risking a dollar.

For me, the embodiment and the idea of a CEO who bets the farm on a idea was Bob Davies, who founded SBT Software.
Bob was a successful IBM sales exec with a family when he fell in love with DBase II.
He left IBM and started SBT with a couple of other DBase coders.
Jack Welch never even thought about taking a risk like that.