I'm coming out of semi-hibernation to suggest that everyone read this:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/01/the-benefits-of-business-experience.html
to those of you in industry, this seems obvious. To those of you not in industry, I hope it makes you do some thinking about optimal governance structure and the effectiveness of bureaucracy, even if you disagree with the election-related parts (note that I do agree with her on most of that article, but understand there's plenty of room for debate on the election stuff)