Here’s an interesting chain of thoughts about the success of Apple and its startup culture  …

I read the blog post here and the original article the author referenced here and really wondered if the whole ‘small team’ advantage is a reduction in communication overhead at its root. I appreciate the lessons as we all do about hiring ‘insanely passionate’ people. But there are many examples of companies laying in the dustbins of history who were populated by insanely passionate people. Sun Microsystems immediately comes to mind.

At the heart of a startup culture is the emphasis on leanness and I appreciated Sachin’s comments about Microsoft. Inserting multiple ‘hops’ in communication paths in the form of multiple management layers is a sure way to choke any project or innovative idea to death. Providing oversight without constant intervention is an art. And one that Apple seems to currently master.