I don't think there has been a "Good Old Boy's" network for a long time. The last I remember, that had any strength, was the Atlanta boys from NAPA auto parts and they were getting kind of old in the 80s. And they were limited to auto parts aftermarket.
You would think good social and political skills would get you a CEO spot, but look at that idiot they had in charge of BP when the spill happened. He came up the geology route, a good science kid.
Even that guy who wrote Outliers, admitted, that you can do the work, but you still need opportunity. Creating the opportunity is the skill for success. Maybe there is a book there....
I think we do still have a good ole boy network. I worked for a very large international insurance company. I found that male college grads were concentrated in claims areas that paid more and females with equivalent education were placed in units of business that paid about 5-20% less. The worst part was that there were different work loads for the groups and the women ended up working 3-18 hours of overtime to complete the horrendous work load while the groups consisting primarily of men were given much lighter work loads and put in 40 hrs/ week. Break this down into the hourly rate of pay and you have a good old boys network....
