big companies do not innovate. (counter examples welcome!) unless you’re in a 1-20 person startup, your impact is -5% to +5% as a division. Essentially you’re stroking egos: yours or management’s. best to choose the latter and try your hand at changing the world in after-work projects.
As has been seen over the last two decades, small companies can’t “innovate at scale” when it comes to hardware. The logistics, supply chain management, etc. makes it almost impossible. Look no further than the smart phone market.
Well at least innovate and survive in the mass market.
I would argue these are the exceptions that prove the rule. They all have demonstrable leaders that made this happen. Xerox is done, as is AT&T, as those leaders are long gone. Sony is another one that lost their leader and their magic.
I would argue Apple is on this route now as we are only now seeing the impact of losing Jobs.
