I think some people are talking about startups here and some people are talking about enterprises and it's confusing the issue a bit. Apart from that, I think t

I think some people are talking about startups here and some people are talking about enterprises and it's confusing the issue a bit. Apart from that, I think there's an element of "skin in the game" that benefits startups - there's a natural tendency for people at companies big or small to lose track of the big picture and start working on pet projects. At a startup at least you have a chance of things being aligned, everyone has equity and things are (relatively) simple enough that everyone can sort of tell what needs to be done. But at a big enterprise company, an entire department can spend millions on some pet project before anyone even realizes what's happening, and things are so complex that you can make a reasonable case for anything being a valid bet. And to the people in the department, it will appear that some egocentric executive showed up out of nowhere and disrupted their idea. In the end, though, I don't think it's really mostly executive ego being inflicted on a group of people, although I am sure that sometimes happens. And I especially don't believe that demonstrating small incremental value will protect you from anything. I think if you really want to be on an empowered product team, for real, work at startups. But that comes with its own downsides.