Supachai Panitchpakdi, fall-up artist | 13.05.05  Supachai
Panitchpakdi’s appointment as the new secretary general of
UNCTAD reminds me of one of my favorite Stanley Bing’s Fortune
articles, “Falling Up” (subscription required):  So just when we
thought Krebs was about to get a well-earned corner office in
the executive-departure lounge, the guy up and gets this massive
job elsewhere that pays him a gazillion dollars a year. One day
he’s here, about to get demoted in the latest ineffective
reorganization tango, and the next he’s grinning out from the
business section of the paper with a new head shot, all crisp
and fat-faced.  I don’t blame him for beaming. The boy has every
reason to be as happy as a million clams, not counting bonus and
options. He’s got a fresh start in a brand-new dysfunctional
organization! He has, in short, fallen up instead of down.
Again. It isn’t the first time he’s pulled this off. Nor, I am
sure, will it be the last.  How did he do it? How do they all do
it? How does it happen that