Working in a corporate R&D, this article reminds me about a conversation I had with my department head. He once told me no body in this company will make a bold decision because once you fail , that is the end of your career in this company . Everything should be based on consensus so if you have a great idea A, don’t you dare to go and execute it , but instead build consensus so that idea A will become idea Z after a few interactions with your peers. Now if idea X fails, you don’t need to worry about its impact on your career since you already built consensus around idea Z , so it’s a collective failure . This culture to me is the single reason large corporations today are struggling with new innovation .