In my first job I was put into a team of about 5 people in a company of roughly 10,000 employees. After a year or two, another junior person joined my team and

In my first job I was put into a team of about 5 people in a company of roughly 10,000 employees. After a year or two, another junior person joined my team and he started making contact with senior people all over the place, not quite C-level but only one or two levels down. Not even just in the software department but product development and in sales (to get an idea of user requirements). He sat next to me so I heard all the phone conversations (and winced!). As time passed, it gradually became apparent to us mortals that he wasn't just being humoured - the people he was contacting came to respect him and even consider him their man "on the inside". He ended up doing pretty well - not promoted instantly to senior management, but certainly promoted faster than me (and ended up moving to sales). Now admittedly lots of things are different from what your comment is suggesting. That company was big, but not as big as Apple (?) and intra-company communication nowhere near as bad by the sounds of it. This guy also didn't try turn over the whole company culture; for the most part he just spoke to the right people to progress things within our team's products. And finally, a key ingredient was him; if I made a conscious decision to act like he did, I'm sure it would not have gone well. But my point is just that you shouldn't always write off fighting the corporate hierarchy. For the right person, in the right situation, it can actually make sense.