Truth be told, there are lots of companies that provide exemplary phone support. DirecTV, Virgin America and Apple are a few that regularly exceed my expectations.

Top-down authority structures turn employees into bootlickers, breed pointless struggles for political advantage, and discourage dissent.

There is no way to create wealth without ideas. Most new ideas are created by newcomers. So anyone who thinks the world is safe for incumbents is dead wrong.

Like a child star whose fame fades as the years advance, many once-innovative companies become less so as they mature.

In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record - it's easy to discover who's in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don't appear on any organization chart.

Ideas that transform industries almost never come from inside those industries.

Your organization can start tweeting, but that wont change its DNA.