> The politics lies in what it wants to become - and that is a function of whether the people in the second organisation will keep power in the new place. Yes,

> The politics lies in what it wants to become - and that is a function of whether the people in the second organisation will keep power in the new place. Yes, this feels partly correct. There is a meaningful part of all layers that skew towards self-interest. Every hop amplifies the skew and has fewer checks because it is less visible/accountable to the top level. The local maximum for someone reporting to the CEO is much more closely aligned with the long-term best interest of the company than someone 3 or 4 hops away. Something I learned was just how much success is dependent on one's manager. In early startups, executing on what's best for the long-term success of the company (including when that is short-term optimization) is a good career strategy. Maybe the best. In larger companies—or at least in this single anecdata point, though others have said similar things about other bigger companies—that's not so true. I found that sad.