Yeah.... but also a good way to get paid for a lot of people who then go on to start up new and interesting things that may or may not get dominated by the big 6.
This helps keep the org fresh, new talent coming in and out all the time and there are side benefits in reducing potential corruption. You come in with your big ideas, you get a chance to try them, and then you're out to make way for the next person.
If anything it gives scope for smart and talented people to work on something that if fails they can easily spin multiple startups from in various attempts to find a route to success.
This happens all over the place and we should be thankful people are either dumb/smart enough to take these risks on big ideas.
That's rather more top-down than I've seen. There are large corporate initiatives, but many projects happen because someone thought it was a good idea and sold it to management.
Along similar lines, it also reduces the risk of quitting to follow some entrepreneurial venture, potentially boosting innovation in addition to adding a force pushing the market towards decentralization, which is probably a good thing.
It's essentially a way of outsourcing management structures. Instead of having to handle and process 1000 $1M projects (and probably 20000 proposals) it awards a $1B project that is then in charge of managing that money and awarding subprojects, etc. It's also a good way of getting press and making sure that a fair amount of$ ends up in the pockets of your buddies working on a specific topic.
If its opened up your eyes to a new venture then it's been profitable in certain respects, and as long as its not costing you a fortune to run then that's potentially just as valuable.
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