24. Historical examples of both influential1 public officials and influential business
leaders abound2. However, the power of the modern-era business leader is quite different
from that of the government official. On balance, the CEO seems to be better positioned
to influence the course of community and of nations.
Admittedly the opportunities for the legislator to regulate commerce or of the
jurist to dictate3 rules of equity4 are official and immediate5. No private inpidual can
hold that brand of influence. Yet official power is tempered by our check-and-balance
system of government and, in the case of legislators, by the voting power of the
electorate6. Our business leaders are not so constrained7, so, their opportunities far exceed
those of any public official. Moreover, powerful business leaders all too often seem to
hold de facto legislative8 and judicial9 power by way of their direct influence over public
officials, as the Clinton Administration's fund-raising scandal of 1997 illuminated10 all
too well.
The industrial and technological11 eras have bred such moguls of capitalism12 as
Pullman, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Gates, who by the nature of their industries and
their business savvy13, not by force of law, have transformed our economy, the nature of
work, and our very day-to-day existence. Of course, many modern-day public servants
have made the most of their opportunitiesfor example, the crime-busting mayor
Rudolph Giuliani and the new-dealing President Franklin Roosevelt. Yet their impact
seems to pale next to those of our modern captains of industry.
In sum, modem14 business leaders by virtue15 of the far-reaching impact of their
industries and of their freedom from external constraints16, have supplanted17 lawmakers as
the great opportunists of the world and prime movers of society.
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