The "Big Content" problem is a classic example of the short term thinking that is inevitably brought about when human ambition meets current methods of compensa

The "Big Content" problem is a classic example of the short term thinking that is inevitably brought about when human ambition meets current methods of compensation (i.e. pay). It's in the interest of all kinds of managers to drive up favourable results in the short term so that they can achieve their next promotion and/or receive benefits from any stock options they hold (which typically vest on very short-term timescales compared to, say, the length of technological cycles). Inevitably this leads to those managers seeking local maxima (i.e. sub-optimal tactical revenue generation) rather than more global maxima (i.e. more optimal structural changes to bring about increased revenue generation in the long term) which will take longer to become profitable than the individual is in their post to receive the credit for those decisions. The problem is apparent in almost all forms of human interaction, to the extent that it is probably deeply-rooted in our fundamental psychology. We all prefer the quick wins to the bigger wins that can be achieved by deferring immediate gratification. (There's a relatively famous study which shows that unattended children will often eat a cookie even when they know they will get two cookies if they leave the cookie alone until the researcher returns in a few minutes.) So I guess it's important that we realise that this is a deep problem and think about what (if anything) could be done to solve it. I suspect that it's actually near-impossible to change the behaviour of powerful individuals within an organisation in any meaningful way, and that having an external entity usurp the established order is about the best solution that can be achieved. (I assert that this is true on an individual level within organisations and also when considering organisations as a whole.) It may turn out that this is (in general) a more efficient way to seek global maxima than to wait for a particular entity to alter its behaviour. It would certainly seem that competing entities with different strategies would be so numerous that better strategies are more likely to come from without than within...