There is no reason to believe that these strategies—insurgency, false humility, security, and simplicity plus discounting—won’t work again one day against the horsemen. Giant companies face their own challenges: they lose their best talent to more rewarding start-ups; their physical plant grows old; their empires grow so big they can no longer coordinate all their pieces; they get distracted by investigations by envious or nervous governments. The processes put in place to scale begin slowing the firm down, as managers begin believing that adhering to the guidelines is more important than
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