My very first post to Brain Terminal, on August 22nd, 2001, covered Microsoft and its effects on the software industry. As a software developer who witnessed the rise of Microsoft from within the industry, I saw how the company’s dominance stifled innovation in virtually every market the company touched. Microsoft could simply announce a product—even if the company never actually intended to ship that product—and “freeze” the market as risk-averse technology purchasers held off on buying existing third-party products while waiting for Microsoft’s vaporware.

Now it appears that Microsoft’s size is stifling innovation within the company itself. And that is prompting some employees to start calling publicly (but anonymously) for the firing of Microsoft’s top management.

Beyond a certain size, it seems that all institutions become increasingly inefficient. Businesses at least face an incentive to be efficient: if they’re not, they risk diminished market status, the wrath of shareholders, and possibly even extinction. Perhaps these incentives will save Microsoft from its downward slide. Too bad no such incentives exist for government institutions, where inefficiency can always be papered over by handing taxpayers a bigger bill.