I love reading about positive ways people may work together and all the possible benefits to the enterprise. But here is what I have learned in the trenches. I think there are two kinds of companies today 1) smart companies that leverage the heart, mind and soul of every stakeholder and 2) hierarchical, centralised, and controlling companies. I think the type 2 companies exist where the business model is mature and improvement comes incrementally and it doled out by the senior management team. I think presently the majority of blue chips fall into this category. I think because of the current bonus system, control by the senior management team is entrenched and self perpetuated. In flat organisation structures, there will only be a few people who make it to the senior management team and they are happy to take the ideas of others, but keep the credit for themselves after they put their initials on ideas that has percolated upwards from below. Your article addresses the type 1 companies from my mind map of the business world. I think the these managers I am describing know full well the benefits of collaboration. But they don't get personally measured or rewarded by traditional metrics (share price, market share, customer satisfaction ratings). So therefore, things like collaboration are labelled a "nice to have" and it never gets properly supported by senior management teams. That is why today we (all of us who want type 1 companies) are still fighting to justify cultures and support systems that collaboration. Please tell me I'm wrong about my mind map model of the business world.