Interesting to think how Microsoft is today's Ibm having adopted that beurocratic culture and deep hierarchical org.

I don't think even modern-day Microsoft is anywhere near as bureaucratic as IBM, but yeah - it seems almost inevitable that as a software company grows it'll lose an "undisciplined hacker" culture and become stuffier, for better or worse.

It's the size. You can't avoid it and you need a very clera vision, time, will and most important - trusted people to keep the org lean.

But yeah, I sometimes show that Sinofsky's blog entry as an example of difference.