But in economic terms (what I believe Pincus/Zynga meant), no, the chef did not contribute substantially to revenue/profits the way engineers and sales people did.
I think you and Pincus are lumping together the typical market value of a chef, on average, with the specific contribution of this particular chef in this particular situation. Ron has argued pretty forcefully that Charlie did, in fact, contribute very substantially. His contribution was indirect, okay, but lots of people's contributions are indirect, including senior management's!
Look at the picture at the time Charlie was hired. It's true, Google could probably have hired any number of mediocre or even pretty good chefs without offering them stock options. But somehow they determined that Charlie was exceptional, and they decided it was worth offering him options to get him on board. There are, after all, some chefs in the world who own several restaurants and are fairly wealthy.
But he's wrong for lumping economic contributions as an employee (charlie the chef) and asset appreciation (charlie the investor) together.
I think you and Pincus are lumping together the typical market value of a chef, on average, with the specific contribution of this particular chef in this particular situation. Ron has argued pretty forcefully that Charlie did, in fact, contribute very substantially. His contribution was indirect, okay, but lots of people's contributions are indirect, including senior management's!
Look at the picture at the time Charlie was hired. It's true, Google could probably have hired any number of mediocre or even pretty good chefs without offering them stock options. But somehow they determined that Charlie was exceptional, and they decided it was worth offering him options to get him on board. There are, after all, some chefs in the world who own several restaurants and are fairly wealthy.
But he's wrong for lumping economic contributions as an employee (charlie the chef) and asset appreciation (charlie the investor) together.
This point I agree with.