In your opinion, can a bit better CEO (not outrageously better, just somewhat better than the other guy/gal with a bit brighter long-term strategy and a bit different focus for the subordinate top managers) personally make a 1% total difference in company growth across ten years?
If you don't accept that, then I'll just have to disagree based on how I've seen companies are managed, IMHO personalities matter at least that much. But if you do accept that, then that obviously means that a single human being can create value at that scale, as 1% impact on Apple's growth over 10 years would be something like $20 billion. Being in positions with extremely high leverage means that your decisions have extremely high impact on value. Of course, there are also opposite examples of CEOs who have personally destroyed billions of value through their decisions.
