A few year ago the WSJ discussed how Cirque du Soleil recruits special performers but not so unique that they cannot be replaced or duplicated. After all, they spend millions on a show and intend for it to outlast any single performer plus travel around the world.I think this goes back to the fundamental conflict between control and invention.
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The greater a company (and the "investment") gets, the stable profit (like: patent stock, improvements planned for years ahead by selling number forecast to please investors) becomes the main goal, and the control over the replaceable employees is the way. So I think this article is correct, yet of course not very motivating.
This is not the way for fundamental improvements, but I think today such improvements need years or decades of experiments - and this is not the world of small companies. I mean real, like Neumann's fundamental design for all modern IT equipment, or Google's new business model (even if I don't like it) - not something like Facebook... Dead end.
Being a kind of black sheep myself, I was and I am grateful to any environment where they let me work in my way. For that I do my best to tell them why, and have people around me who can continue those things after me...
