[agumonkey]

I wonder if there were some structural attempts (at Google or elsewhere) at mitigating this effect, like voluntary creating nano-competition by spinning off a bunch of companies just to see how the perceive trends and create on their own.

[mik3y]

It definitely happens in the valley; Cisco was notorious in the 90s and 00s for acquiring "spin-ins" (startups founded by ex-Cisco leadership/teams with an almost certain expectation of returning to the mothership), and I'm sure there are other examples.

Less drastically, Google (and I'm sure many other valley peers) will often set up special incentive structures for certain teams: bonuses tied to aggressive adoption metrics and separated from the company-wide bonus, for example. I doubt it comes close to cutting that safety net (and making people truly hungry), but I give them credit for trying.

[agumonkey]

Thanks for the info, "spin-ins", is exactly the idea I was trying to describe. And I agree with you, in-house incentives are probably far from being enough.

[tostitos1979]

I think VMWare does this. They even take stakes in the spin offs. Enlightened policy in my books.