I think that the article's still interesting, but I agree that there's a lot of room for the author to move the goalposts, which makes the article read as fluff.

I'd be far more interested in it if Mr. Rao had said "and now that I've said that, here's what my theory predicts about Steve Ballmer and Tim Cook, who are definitely both finance-oriented CEOs."

Also I'm fairly surprised to see this in Forbes: "In general CEOs are in an adversarial relationship with the investment community. If they are sincere about their jobs, they are in it to build long-term value in enduring companies that create real, as opposed to paper wealth. Investors generally want to simply create preferentially-predictable-to-them stock movements that they can take advantage of on their own personal wealth-building schedule, which has nothing to do with the fundamental time constants or market tempo of the company."

Did Forbes just notice that the financier class are parasites who are in an 'adversarial relationship' with people who actually create value? Pinch me!