Big Tech

The big tech companies—Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple—are coming under increasing scrutiny and many people think they are getting too big and that the government should do something about it. Whether or not they’re too big, I doubt that the government can do much to remedy the situation.

You might have noted the absence of Microsoft on that list. I can remember a time when it would have stood at the head of the list, if any other company even appeared on it. Nobody’s afraid of Microsoft any more, though. I thought at the time that Microsoft was its own worst enemy, and if Bill Gates and Steve Balmer had more brains and less ego they’d split the company voluntarily. The leaders of these companies should consider that today.

Once an amoeba or other single-cell organism gets to a certain size it has to split in order to continue to grow. Why don’t business leaders look at their companies this way?