I've seen the head of a business unit in my large organization not so subtly hint to a Director that Problem X is something that we need to solve in the next 18

I've seen the head of a business unit in my large organization not so subtly hint to a Director that Problem X is something that we need to solve in the next 18-24 months, but we don't have the budget properly allocated to do it ourselves. Lo and behold the Director shortly leaves the company to found a startup aimed at solving Problem X. Eighteen months later we buy them, aquihiring back the director and some engineers who left with him to start the startup. The head of the business unit knew he couldn't get the approval from the board to solve Problem X, so he basically outsourced the risk and in the end the director and his engineers ended up with a nice chunk of change and their old jobs back.