Originally Posted by fjtorres

You are assuming that Riggio and the Board are absolutely right and Mr. Boire is absolutely wrong.

Considering how screwed up B&N has been for most of the decade, long before he was hired, might it not be that the board didn't like what he had to say after seeing how the company really works on the inside?

Not every fired exec is fired for actual incompetence. Sometimes the exec is competent and trying to do the right thing but the rest of the company is refusing to take its medicine. Howard Stringer's tenure at Sony is a classic example.

Companies have internal cultures and when outsiders come in and try to change that culture the pushback can be fierce. Sometime the exec wins, sometimes the exec loses. Quite often the exec is eventually proven correct, which is one reason we hear so much about the few that truly screw up.

Since most of those contracts come with NDAs we'll probably never know what really went on there. Unless B&N implodes or somebody tries to scapegoat him.