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Recently, DeepSeek and its models have taken the world by storm. But you might be wondering: how can a small company like this defeat so many large corporations?
I have led teams in big companies before, so I deeply understand why large corporations struggle with innovation. This has a lot to do with how talent is organized and how performance evaluations are conducted.
In big companies, there are two types of people who are willing to innovate. The first type consists of veteran employees who still have some fighting spirit. They have the willingness to innovate, but because they are burdened with management responsibilities, they are detached from the front lines and no longer grasp the details or the latest technologies. They want to push innovation, but they are often powerless to do so. Sometimes, they propose new ideas, and while their overall direction might be correct, their plans are inevitably flawed. When it comes to execution, employees would rather follow the original, flawed version of the veteran’s plan to the letter rather than directly point out the problems and improve upon it. This is because blindly following instructions carries the least risk — if something goes wrong, they can always say, “I was just following orders.” However, challenging a veteran comes with risks that far outweigh the potential rewards.
