“Once a company gets really big, they are always second-guessing themselves. Only very ordinary ideas survive that process.” — Dave Winer.
Second-guessing (and worse) happens at almost all established organizations. Once you get to a certain level, a certain age, things are expected to be done a certain way. It’s damn-near impossible to break the cycle, even if you’re in what a good friend calls the “death spiral.”
The good news is companies die and new ones are invented to replace them. There’s constant, but messy, fermentation. But what about public enterprises (got water?), that can’t go out of business (got security?), but face incredible barriers to change? Got Katrina??
Dave’s right when he suggests young entrepreneurs go find a hill to camp out on. Highly unlikely to create change walking through the front door. Unless you’re the rare CEO...
