What you learn is that when they are simply given a budget and told "build" they thrive.
Or they end up with dozens of failed initiatives including three or four messenger apps being developed in parallel....
There are a lot of “smart people” (tm) when left to their own devices can’t create a product that anyone wants to save their lives.
When the CEO just says "We're going to spend X% on research, here is the budget" then they thrive again.
Or you end up with the Apple Technology Group that brought the world great products like OpenDoc, QuickDraw GX, Squeak, etc