Hi Paul:
As always your essay is right on the money. I've worked for big companies and I've worked for small ones, and let me tell you, small is better. I've heard it described like this. A big company is like an engine with a monstrous flywheel. If a couple of cylinders are misfiring (or not firing at all) you really don't even notice. In fact EVERY cylinder can loaf along at pretty mediocre performance, and the flywheel will still spin. The problem is, most companies interpret a spinning flywheel as a useful function in itself. They don't realize there's no useful load attached to the engine.