I work at an extremely large company - over 100k people across the globe. When companies get this big, it feels like everything takes forever to get done. I w

I work at an extremely large company - over 100k people across the globe. When companies get this big, it feels like everything takes forever to get done. I was just talking with a coworker how at a small company the RetiredOnTheJob people wouldn't be tolerated. Funny thing is we used to be in a small group that was empowered to do what it needed to. Then upper manglement decided to centralize a bunch of functions - now we have common ways of doing things that don't meet anyone's needs. So I think as companies grow they need to be more like how the Virgin companies operate - literally separate divisions in a family corporation. Empower and measure each small group to do what they need to and leave them alone. Required reading is the Gervais Principle here: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/ http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o... After reading this, I now can associate 3 times having gone through the MacLeod Life Cycle. Now on the fourth in a growing organization. The org is in the second stage moving into the third and I'm moving from a Loser into the Clueless. My saving grace is having tough technical problems to solve for my team like 30+ terabytes of files and db, thousands of transactions flowing, making system "Mission Critical", etc. That plus learning iOS development at home keeps me sane.