[bkbleikamp]

Who's to say someone at Yahoo doesn't have the capability of coming up with the "next big thing?" Maybe the junior developer they hired last week will have a great idea tomorrow - you never know.

Steve Jobs came back in 1996 - it took 5 years for them to launch the iPod. It's anyone's guess where Yahoo will be in 5 years - maybe Jerry Yang will be looked at as a hero, maybe not. Predicting Yahoo's position five years from now is impossible.

[mikedouglas]

If your business plan is "maybe one of us will turn out to be the next Steve Jobs," it may be better just to sell to MSFT ;)

[phaedrus]

Maybe the junior developer does have a great idea tomorrow - the question is, will anyone listen to him? Or will his small voice not be heard in a big company? It's not that they lack people who have the potential to do great things, it's the size/culture, the organization itself, which in (most) large corporations stifles new ideas and creativity.

[anupamkapoor]

radical changes will flow top down not bottom up. at least not in any organization of yahoo!'s size.

[dmoney]

What do you suppose the size limit for a company is, for changes to flow from the bottom up?

[Jesin]

This could be the wrong way of thinking about it.

Maybe radical changes can only start within a certain distance from the top, and as the company gets bigger, the bottom moves further away from the top and can no longer initiate those sorts of things. Just a thought.