… so writes Scott Barnes over at The MossyBlog Times.
The larger an organisation becomes, the more it’s Mass of Stupidity grows. Until it reaches critically.
Sure, there are pockets of brilliance in one field or another, but on the whole, once an organisation reaches Stupidity Critically, it’s lost.
Even if the CEO might realise this, and wants to change:
No one person can control Microsoft today, which has been obvious to Gates for at least eight years, since that’s how long ago he put Steve Ballmer in the CEO job. For at least eight years, then, these guys have known that their jobs are not so much to steer the Microsoft ship as to try and keep it from drifting onto the rocks. That’s the way it is with huge and successful companies. At best you can trim the sails, because to come about (to significantly shift direction) is just too dangerous for the money machine.
– Robert X. Cringely reflecting on Bill Gates in Go Home, Bill … (my italics)
You can tell that Stupidity Critically is reached when management starts talking about cultural change.