Jeffrey Sonnenfeld Adds Another Privileged Take on Public's Reaction to Brian Thompson's Murder

Dr. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who has been in academics since kindergarten, wrote a scathing piece condemning the public’s reaction to Brian Thompson’s murder.

Now, it was written by a career academic with a target readership of Chief Executives, but that’s what makes it so troubling. It only pushes more bias and prejudices between business elites and the common American. Those in our highest institutions are meant to enlighten and inspire, not churn out half-baked articles for research clout without applying any critical thinking. His article is click-bait crap.

Here's how he scolds the public:

I have studied CEO and business leadership for 40 years, and such dancing on the grave of a murdered business executive is one of the most abhorrent things I have ever seen. This vitriol and violence against business and business leaders is plainly un-American.‌

He’s not wrong. Celebrating murder isn’t a great look. It’s a terrible one. But that murder was the most abhorrent thing he’s seen? Was he in a coma during 9/11? Or is that just a chapter in a history book to Dr. Jeffrey?

He must not get out much. Being a professor and in academia his entire career can cause that. It started when he went to kindergarten, continued through grade school and college, graduate school, business school, then straight to teaching at Harvard’s School of Business. Wait. That doesn’t make any sense. With all that learning, how did Dr. Jeffrey have time to get real-world business experience to teach our future leaders? Unless of course, he was just teaching future teachers in some sort of academic cycle of circle jerk, as many of the most successful CEOs skip or bail on continued learning.

So, wait, a twenty-six-year-old with no leadership or business experience was teaching business at Harvard, then Emory University, then Yale, where he started the Chief Executive Leadership Institute? And he continues to teach and offer counsel to CEOs, including our Presidents four decades later? Do the cheerleaders coach football at Yale, too? It would explain why their football team always sucks. Cheerleaders perform at every football game, but does that mean they can coach? How’s that any different from a career academic teaching leadership to CEOs with no CEO or business experience? Business theory? I got a theory for you.

Let me share what I mean. I went to college for journalism and public relations, learned a ton of theories, case studies, role-played work settings, networked, all that shit. As soon as I got into Corporate America, all those theories, research, and case studies went right out the window. My college learning did train me how to be professional and honed in some of my skills, but nothing prepared me for being thrown into the belly of the beast. Direct experience is necessary, but do you think I was reading a case study when a CEO asked me to write a lie to a reporter about what their technology would do to custodians? Don’t tell a reporter everything or lose my job. That was my choice. Hands on business experience. The doing of what I learned in college really helped me grasp the Corporate America environment. Now, that is just my experience. It might not be universal, but that's how it was for me.

Shit, for an entry-level job, I needed two to three years of experience to apply, but an Ivy League graduate needs a degree and a research paper with no real-world experience? Ha. I always hated school, now it feels justified. I guess if you pay enough money in tuition and don’t ruffle any feathers, it guarantees you a lifetime teaching gig with pension and fantastic healthcare.

Speaking of which, what kind of healthcare insurance plans does Dr. Jeffrey get? Well, as a professor at Yale University, Dr. Jeffrey has fantastic plan options. Here’s one of them:

Yale University offers its faculty members comprehensive health insurance options, primarily through Yale Health, a physician-led health maintenance organization (HMO) located on campus. Faculty members can choose between enrolling in Yale Health or selecting from other plan options within the Aetna program.

• The plan features no deductibles for most preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services, and members are not required to submit claim forms.

• There are no limitations for preexisting conditions. The plan covers a wide range of services, including routine physical exams, immunizations, routine cancer screenings, family planning services, routine eye exams, and hearing exams. Preventive and screening services are based on generally accepted standards endorsed by authorities such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Services may be subject to limitations or restrictions as described in the Schedule of Benefits.

No deductibles? No limitations for preexisting conditions?! Damn, who needs health insurance reform with a plan like that?

That’s what makes Dr. Jeffrey’s commentary so wrong. Of course, he sees no issues with health insurance. Yale’s faculty health plan is among the best in the nation. He’s had top tier health insurance offerings since he was 26.

Back to Jeffrey calling Americans traumatized response to Brian Thompson’s murder unAmerican by describing one of the most “abhorrent” things I’ve ever seen, besides that blatant disrespect to anyone who’s ever earned a college degree with those words Jeffrey and Chief Executive called an article. “Writ”, “vitriol”, and “wrought?” Who writes like that? Oh yeah, a “scholar.” But here’s some terms Jeffrey might have skipped over during his decades of learning; oligopolies, regulatory capture, and rent-seeking.

For us layman, an oligopoly isn’t a monopoly but sounds and acts like one. Let’s use the health insurance industry to explain how it might apply. We’ll also cover regulatory capture and rent-seeking. A small number of big companies control most of the market, working together to limit competition. Health insurance companies would generate revenue through premiums and manage costs by denying claims when deemed outside policy terms. A portion of these profits would go to shareholders and lobbying efforts. What would health insurance companies lobby for? What have they lobbied for in the past? Blocking healthcare reform, shaping policy, profit protection, and restricting accountability. Legal, technical jargon to purposely make it hard for us regular folk to understand. Allow me to translate. Health insurance companies lobby to oppose public healthcare options like “Medicare for All” to preserve their dominance; influence laws to reduce oversight, limit consumer protections, and increase premiums; lobby for tax breaks, favorable regulations, and mergers that consolidate market power; fight against laws that would make it easier for patients to sue over denied claims.

That’s what oligopolies, regulatory capture, and rent-seeking mean and how they could apply to the health insurance industry. Clearly predatory practices, but they don’t affect Dr. Jeffrey or his academic and CEO friends, so he’s unable reach any other conclusion besides political extremism. Brilliant, Doctor.  

That’s how offensive Dr. Jeffrey’s article was. I can’t believe someone with multiple degrees who’s informed the last four Presidents came to that conclusion. Maybe he means well, but he’s so far up academia’s ass, he can’t see shit.

It’s deeply disturbing that an academic can ignore the world around him and view this murder in a CEO silo. Murder has no place in a civilized society. I’d also argue there’s no place for a career academic to comment on the inner workings of a society he doesn't understand.

Here's what Dr. Jeffrey missed. The decisions of health insurance companies affect whether people live or die. Period. They can also decide whether people can afford to live. Sometimes it’s cheaper to die than live for sick Americans. That’s just as abhorrent as Brian Thompson’s murder. The health insurance industry provides “value-based care” not let’s “keep this person alive regardless of socioeconomic status care.” That’s also abhorrent to me, and neglect by a business, industry, and system.

Decades of being abused by predatory health insurance policies and systems, and there’s one violent reaction, and a forty-year academic’s intelligent conclusion is to blame the Far-Left and Far-Right. No wonder people question America’s educational system. To look at all these facts and write a generalized article about the Far-Left and Far-Right hating CEOs and business to explain away the murder of Brian Thompson is lazy, uninspired, and frankly, stupid. Murder is never acceptable. No one deserves to be killed. Period. To that point, just because people aren’t gunned down in public (oh wait, we are!) doesn’t mean their deaths aren’t any less “abhorrent” or preventable.

If Dr. Jeffrey’s response to my dismantling of his argument is 'the health insurance industry is not my area of expertise,' that’s my point. He should never have written the article. Having the humility and self-awareness to realize he didn’t dedicate the time, have the experience, nor the qualifications to assess what’s driving the American’s public reaction to this tragedy. His article may play well with CEOs, but that’s because he’s nothing but an academic fluffer to them. No real leadership despite teaching it. Don’t believe me?

In a 2022 article co-authored with Steven Tian, Dr. Jeffrey highlighted the disproportionate growth in CEO compensation compared to average worker wages. He noted that from 1978 to 2020, CEO pay increased by 1,322.2% after adjusting for inflation, while the average worker’s wages grew by 18%. Someone is getting screwed here. Did Dr. Jeffrey suggest balancing this number? Even a tad? Did Dr. Jeffrey say, “Be a good leader, pay people a little more, take less?”

Nope.

Dr. Jeffrey did the research on CEO salaries and wage disparity, which is exactly what an academic should do. It’s good work, too. The problem is he never finished the job. Research isn’t the end, it’s the beginning. What do you do with the data? Raise your hand and say, look what I found, or do you use it to strategically advise leaders? Perhaps write an article demanding CEOs take less pay and more evenly distribute their wealth?

In a 2022 Newsweek article, Dr. Jeffrey noted that CEO pay had doubled over the preceding five years, outpacing both inflation and shareholder returns, and described this trend as “genuinely inflationary.” CEO salaries have outpaced inflation, and shareholder returns over the past five years. That line will definitely lower CEO salaries if a shareholder at any company reads it.

Back in a 2017 Wall Street Journal commentary, Dr. Jeffrey acknowledged that "soaring CEO compensation can make it hard to feel sorry for the boss, especially when eye-popping pay packets are not matched by performance." So, bosses are paid millions even if their company underperforms? What happens if a regular employee underperforms? Does he get a pay raise? Shit, even performing well doesn’t get a raise in these economic times. But if CEOs still receive above market compensation for bad performances, where do the business cuts come from, Dr. Jeffrey? I’m willing to bet employee salaries, the biggest expense line on the spreadsheet.

But I have to give the guy credit. Dr. Jeffrey correctly identifies issues. But that’s it. All those years studying and case studies, and it’s “CEOs going to CEO” rather than challenging them for being greedy and demanding better leadership. Dr. Jeffrey doesn’t interpret what the data means. Just pull it and repeat what it shows. Apparently, they give degrees and pats on the heads from CEOs for that.

So, what does Dr. Jeffrey teach our future leaders?

As a professor and expert on CEO and leadership, Dr. Jeffrey supposedly teaches leadership and ethics, corporate governance, CEO and board dynamics, strategic decision-making in complex environments, and social responsibility in leadership roles. HA! Ethics and social responsibility in leadership roles! What a joke. Forty years of studying and advising CEOs and it’s the Far-Left and Far-Right that hate businesses and CEOs despite the overwhelming evidence that a majority of Americans are constantly being fucked by big businesses and overpaid CEOs. The fact he’s advising CEOs and future leaders is abhorrent to me. Dr. Jeffrey should have titled his piece, “Let Them Eat Cake, CEOs Rule and the American Public Drools.”

Isn’t CEO leadership about making the world a better place for everyone, not just themselves? Where’s the social responsibility? Our academics and CEOs should be moving away from bloated profits and salaries, and instead shift towards a stakeholder capitalism model. I guess you missed that term in your forty years of study, too. This is where businesses put the well-being of their workers, customers, and communities ahead of shareholders and profits. Understanding and having enough self-awareness to see that the way our system currently operates benefits a few while millions suffer. Challenging that from a CEO position is leadership. It’ll create a place where terms like value-based care, unnecessary care, medical debt, and denial are extinct.

People like Dr. Jeffrey need to check their privilege before opening their mouths. No experience in the private sector to see how these predatory systems affect everyday Americans not sheltered in an educational and elite business bubble. I have to live with the consequences of how Dr. Jeffrey molds CEOs into leaders, and it’s safe to say he’s doing a pretty shitty job. Everyone hates CEOs. Dr. Jeffrey’s been saying it since 2017. But with all his connections, resources, and education, he did nothing about it. Seven years he let this animosity build between the Americana public and CEOs without advising the business elite to take less salary and pay their employees more.

Rather than point the finger at those who aren’t CEOs or academics, Dr. Jeffrey should look at his own contributions to this mess. Mainly, his inaction. He knew CEOs were taking too much, but did nothing about it. Instead, he’s championed Super Suits, not Americans, which is not at all what a teacher of CEO leadership and a CEO adviser should do. Part of his job is to teach ethics and social responsibility. Seems he may have skipped that chapter.

Degrees give you plaques on a wall and shit tons of debt, not necessarily knowledge, but I’m sure Dr. Jeffrey is an expert with CEOs and leadership. I mean he better be. He spent his entire life studying it. Dr. Jeffrey’s has had a platform for decades and done what besides CEO propaganda and present data points? If I have questions on how to handle a shareholder meeting, I’ll reach out, Dr. Jeffrey. until then keep your mouth shut. You’ve demonstrated your inability to reason, think critically, and evaluate research. Business needs to change. CEO salaries need to be reined in. Health insurance needs to be phased out of society. That starts with leadership. And given your response to Brian Thompson’s murder, you clearly are unable to see that. Your career highlight reel and commentary prove this. All you know is CEOs. Most people don’t even know one. But everyone knows someone who was denied care or crippled by massive medical debt.

Real leaders don’t ignore the people they’re supposed to serve. They don’t dismiss justified anger as “unAmerican.” Dr. Jeffrey is not a leader, at least not in this case. Just another academic dork who couldn’t start a business on his own trying to live vicariously through the most successful Suits in the world. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but history will not be kind to you, Dr. Jeffrey. You’ll be forgotten after a decade, maybe less. Go back to class. Leave the real conversations to those of us who live in a world you’ve never been a part of. Stop flaming the fire around this discussion.

Dr. Jeffrey should perhaps humble himself and realize he's fortunate enough to observe power instead of living with its consequences.