If I can add to this, I think there's something attractive to many about the large, stable, slow-to-steer ship that is a large company: often there's low expect

If I can add to this, I think there's something attractive to many about the large, stable, slow-to-steer ship that is a large company: often there's low expectations (relative to startups), you can get "lost in the bureaucracy", and rarely do you get to make a real, influential decision because of the incredible amount of in-fighting and empire-building above you, so you can coast. Taking a different angle to your conclusion, these conditions set up the departure from "how do I contribute to the company creating the best product ever" to "doing more than the bare minimum to guarantee my paycheck nets me a low/negative ROI". Not the ideal attitude for your team to have. I'm in an org at the moment and I'm watching new layers of middle management being created, excess processes being introduced, ICs being disempowered, consultants being engaged over in-house, eye-watering dollars being pissed away while penny-pinching on things that keep the lights on, etc. I have to wonder what are the conditions that mean these (what I consider to be) mistakes can go on for years before a company actually begins to be seriously impacted? Is it actually extremely difficult to kill a large enough org from the inside once it has enough momentum, provided the org avoids doing anything particularly stupid? I can't actually think of something an org has done that was particularly stupid and resulted in its end. Do big companies even fail?