At every company, and in fact in every village, there is both a formal, extraverted, hierarchical organization, and an informal, social, graph-like organization

At every company, and in fact in every village, there is both a formal, extraverted, hierarchical organization, and an informal, social, graph-like organization. Much is made of "networking", but I wonder how many understand that the social network is where the real power is. The hierarchy gets things done that need doing. The social network transcends, not only moving people between divisions and teams within the company, but also between companies. One might even see this as a principle behind the ascendancy of the likes of Facebook, GitHub, and LinkedIn. Make no mistake, there are people at Microsoft operating to make things better, and the competition, both internal and external, plays a part. We who like to read, like to practice reading the writing on the wall, as we did while focusing on the chalkboard from our desks, now replaced by the whiteboard from our bouncy balls and standing desks. But we also know that a company lives until the last person turns out the light.