Re: Merry go-round
"They need constant projects to anchor their place in the business."
I have a different take, and that is that in the good old days before people could contact you and knew where you were supposed to be all the time, directors and senior execs would be off playing golf, having extra marital affairs, or relaxing at home, all under the guise of some imprecise work related activity.
Now, with widely accessible electronic calendars, easy working out how long travel takes, HR policies that make it more difficult to treat attractive junior staff as feudal entitlements, and expectations of being communicable and responsive, they have to do these projects to fill their working day, according to Parkinson's Law.
There's also the involvement of undesirable elements like procurement, and of external advisers. Procurement appear to be trying to expand their influence to f*** up the business, following HR's success with such an approach, and are always muttering that they could save the business tuppence by resourcing the contract to another bunch of untrustworthy snake oil salesmen. The external advisers promise the same (over expensive lunches, or on glitzy trips to see the nightlife of Prague.