[whatok]

So people always bring up outsourcing part of the job to some developing country but that would run into the same problem as your third option. Having too many cooks in the kitchen will introduce a lot of operational error while having a few people who know everything about a project will run things smoother even if they are worked to the bone.

[stephengillie]

Outsourcing to some remote part of some other country, and outsourcing to some remote part of the country you live in, aren't much different.

Many large companies are able to maintain a large number of server operators and perform essential functions without needing one person to do everything. With sufficient communication you can avoid the "too many cooks" problem. I've personally lead highly-communicating teams which avoid this problem. In short what you do is put one of the 3 in charge of different work as it comes up, load balance and collaborate.

But maybe it's cheaper and easier to pay one person a huge amount of money, and beat them up, than to create a highly-communicating organization of people (including email, IM, ticket system, face-to-face time, regular meetings, bridge calls, etc). It certainly looks simpler.

[whatok]

Thank you, I'm well-aware that other large companies are able to do all these wonderful things but it really is a different beast.

I think a huge part of it is that the tools do not lend to a very collaborative workflow. Excel and Powerpoint do not exactly have a robust version control system or any great way of leaving any useful comments so that alone makes things difficult.

And honestly, it's probably around the same amount of money if not more expensive to keep a leaner crew but for the type and nature of the work, it's probably more efficient.

And don't get me wrong, there is some outsourcing going on, just not on some "well if all they're doing is powerpoint and excel, why don't they outsource the whole thing" level.

[jsprogrammer]

It's probably not only easier, but the alternative requires having considerable technical expertise. GS and ilk probably identified such expertise as a massive cost center long ago and don't keep much stock in people that could actually execute such an organization.