After quoting a time schedule and costs, my previous manager once told me that "[He] doesn't know how to do that task nor understand the technical issues but doesn't think it should take or cost that much!" I guess if you can buy MS Word for $700, that is the ball park for any software task. I wish I had told him that he needs to buy a copy of MS Word and his problem is solved.
Unfortunately, most workers in the US revere top level executives as some sort of business geniuses. Call me "anti-business", but I believe most were lucky that they got in when the going was good and managed to hold on. I remember reading about William Penn (who at one time owned the land which became Pennsylvania). He leveraged himself too much and went bankrupt and died penniless. Since that time, our bankruptcy laws haven been changed to protect the wealthy and given them a chance to "reorganize" and keep "creditors at bay" until they get their finances in order. A case in point is Donald Trump who should be working selling hot dogs on 57th since the mid-1980's. Listening to him for half an hour on his "reality show" makes me want to puke. It would be good if that was his occupation, but his show was just a way to stay in the limelight for a bit longer.