> An ideal company is a mix of both The best company I've ever worked at (retail, surprisingly) squared the circle thusly: Strategy (i.e. goals, culture, prio

> An ideal company is a mix of both The best company I've ever worked at (retail, surprisingly) squared the circle thusly: Strategy (i.e. goals, culture, priorities) flowed top-down. And the company spent serious time doing it pervasively and well. Solutions (i.e. implementations, features, products) flowed bottom-up. Part of their corporate culture was that a manager above team level should never suggest how to do something. You could bounce ideas off them, but they were pretty serious about it being the person doing the implementation work's decision.