Victor Kung — 'A governance structure that isn't load-bearing isn't governance. It's a suggestion.'

Victor Kung unpacks the Ries × Aakash Gupta conversation on governance: Johnson & Johnson carved values into a stone Credo and still ended up in the talc scandal; OpenAI's board had formal authority to remove Sam Altman but no real power and reversed within days; Novo Nordisk's trustees vetoed a short-term move in the 2000s, preserving the runway that later produced Ozempic; a $10K bet on the Costco IPO is worth $8.7M today because Sol Price's fiduciary duty to the customer was the engine of return, not its cost.

“OpenAI's board had the formal, legal authority to remove Sam Altman. What it didn't have was real power. Nothing bound employees or investors to honor the decision, so when both pushed back, the board reversed itself within days. A governance structure that isn't load-bearing isn't governance. It's a suggestion, and gravity doesn't respect suggestions.” — Victor Kung on LinkedIn