[norswap]

Are they though? ("Known for being exceptionally clever in how it manages engineers?") I've actually never heard something in that direction, in many signs it is not the case (starting with broken recruiting).

It is however I believe good at keeping engineers happy, and good and good at managing their engineer infrastructure (though it is very Google-specific, and not necessarily a good fit for the rest of the world). But that doesn't say that engineers are being managed cleverly or efficiently.