We know that hiring process is totally broken, for exactly this reason. People use hunches and feelings and a whole range of subjective stuff instead of the only thing that actually works: a work sample.
In programming this is absolutely correct - but when it's for a management role, you can't just ask for some kind of work sample of a management decision. You have to go based on anecdotes and references. You do usually need to be able to define how this person specifically drove the company's profits when no one else did - because that's how you close to an in-house hiring manager or to upper management / ownership. But again, all you're likely to have is stories.
