Many economists, and many corporate veterans, wonder why large publicly traded corporations exist. What's their true advantage? What offsets the large amount of work that goes nowhere?
One answer is financial warfare. Corporations can engage in finance competition outside of the traditional models of market competition.
I think Six Sigma is a clue to another reason. Modern knowledge worker corporations are designed to harness the cognitive output of the majority of the population - people who follow directions reasonably well, work hard enough, and have average to above average intelligence. This means dividing work into small segments that can be passed around and executive methodically - just like Ford's assembly line.
Methods like six sigma are needed to make knowledge work more closely resemble assembly line work.
A startup runs on premium gasoline, but a publicly traded corporation can run on regular.
