It's the rule. Steve Jobs is the exception. HP, IBM, Cisco, Sun, Netscape, Google - they were all visionary when they were small and bloated and inefficient o

It's the rule. Steve Jobs is the exception. HP, IBM, Cisco, Sun, Netscape, Google - they were all visionary when they were small and bloated and inefficient once they got big. Apple too - do you remember the late 80s and early 90s, when Apple had a zillion PowerMac models, plans for Copland that never shipped, multiple new programming languages, the Newton, and basically a lot of ideas but shitty execution? Steve Jobs basically managed to rein it in by being an asshole - he had both the product taste to be right, the charisma to convince everyone else of it, and the insensitivity to not care whose feelings he hurt. Elon Musk is similar. But note that the flip side of this is often a crisis of succession: IMHO Apple really hasn't been that visionary or helpful since Jobs died, and have basically pushed out a series of incremental improvements.