4 ms·

I guess this is why startups exist because it it almost impossible for larger firms to execute good ideas even if they think of the idea themselves

moretai 7y ago
What is the underlying reason goliaths don't execute ideas well? Too many chefs in the kitchen?
- jgust 7y ago
  Political land grabs for the "new hotness".
- gfs78 7y ago
  Lots of freeloaders and incompetent power trippers in the middle layers and above. Small orgs. and startups cannot afford this kind of workers. In my current project (big co.) we have a technical PM, a non-technical PM, a non programmer dev lead, an scrum master and a lead business analyst, all involved in managing the work of a team of 2 and a half (a sr ba/qa guy, a part-time ssr dev and me). Waste work is probably in the 90%.
  - spookthesunset 7y ago
    > Lots of freeloaders and incompetent power trippers in the middle layers and above. Not just middle layers and up. Freeloaders and gatekeepers everywhere.
- hnick 7y ago
  In my experience it's risk aversion. They're more worried about losing out from doing the wrong thing or breaking what they have, than a slow death from decaying market relevance. It's much easier to stay the course than to stick your neck out asking to change things.
asdfman123 7y ago
I don't think that's true, but often times when you work in a large org building actually ANYTHING is like pulling teeth. Every decision you make is second guessed by 8 other people, and anything you do impacts 5 other teams. It's infuriating unless you're the type of person who loves working through people problems, and a lot of developers, including myself, aren't that kind of person. Also, maybe it has to do with the fact that failure is an expected part of startups, but in the business world there's perverse incentives to build something mediocre, expensive and ultimately useless just to give the appearance of success. With a startup, you're free to do whatever the hell you want. If it works, it works, and if it doesn't it doesn't. I guess it would be possible to give in-house teams free reign to try out new ideas without all the organizational friction, but the startup model works, so why not just throw some money at some kids and see what happens?
- hnick 7y ago
  > I guess it would be possible to give in-house teams free reign to try out new ideas without all the organizational friction The traditional name for this is a skunkworks project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunkworks_project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunkworks_project They tried something like it somewhere I worked but messed it up. Everyone needed to pitch ideas then the 'approved' projects were the pet ideas of various suits, put under the same restrictions as regular projects, and choked to death.
- zubairq 7y ago
  Sorry I realized that we were both saying the same thing. When I say that large companies can’t execute I mean they do try, but 99.9% of the time they fail because of internal large company structures. I meant to say can’t execute successfully , not won’t try :)

moretai 7y ago

What is the underlying reason goliaths don't execute ideas well? Too many chefs in the kitchen?

jgust 7y ago
Political land grabs for the "new hotness".
gfs78 7y ago
Lots of freeloaders and incompetent power trippers in the middle layers and above. Small orgs. and startups cannot afford this kind of workers. In my current project (big co.) we have a technical PM, a non-technical PM, a non programmer dev lead, an scrum master and a lead business analyst, all involved in managing the work of a team of 2 and a half (a sr ba/qa guy, a part-time ssr dev and me). Waste work is probably in the 90%.
- spookthesunset 7y ago
  > Lots of freeloaders and incompetent power trippers in the middle layers and above. Not just middle layers and up. Freeloaders and gatekeepers everywhere.
hnick 7y ago
In my experience it's risk aversion. They're more worried about losing out from doing the wrong thing or breaking what they have, than a slow death from decaying market relevance. It's much easier to stay the course than to stick your neck out asking to change things.

asdfman123 7y ago

I don't think that's true, but often times when you work in a large org building actually ANYTHING is like pulling teeth. Every decision you make is second guessed by 8 other people, and anything you do impacts 5 other teams. It's infuriating unless you're the type of person who loves working through people problems, and a lot of developers, including myself, aren't that kind of person. Also, maybe it has to do with the fact that failure is an expected part of startups, but in the business world there's perverse incentives to build something mediocre, expensive and ultimately useless just to give the appearance of success. With a startup, you're free to do whatever the hell you want. If it works, it works, and if it doesn't it doesn't. I guess it would be possible to give in-house teams free reign to try out new ideas without all the organizational friction, but the startup model works, so why not just throw some money at some kids and see what happens?

hnick 7y ago
> I guess it would be possible to give in-house teams free reign to try out new ideas without all the organizational friction The traditional name for this is a skunkworks project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunkworks_project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunkworks_project They tried something like it somewhere I worked but messed it up. Everyone needed to pitch ideas then the 'approved' projects were the pet ideas of various suits, put under the same restrictions as regular projects, and choked to death.
zubairq 7y ago
Sorry I realized that we were both saying the same thing. When I say that large companies can’t execute I mean they do try, but 99.9% of the time they fail because of internal large company structures. I meant to say can’t execute successfully , not won’t try :)