Engineering frustration ?
S64_fan
I known plenty of stories of good engineering advise not being followed.
The snow-ball effect you quote is true and has too do with inherent conservatism (call it healhty sceptisism) present not only in business and finance but -believe me- even in academia. It is sad, but from another view point, it should be accepted that people at the helm are seldom rewarded by taking bold actions because they really cannot evaluate/predict succes rates, and may not have the time and perseverance, or gather and keep the concensus it takes to put the idea to work. So it is safer to stay 'in the middle' and move by small increments. History tends to show that it takes always longer than anticipated to make things work, even be it because of self full filling conservatism.
Focussed 'smaller shops' are perhaps better to start change, that is until they are noticed, bought and maybe silenced by the bigger ones. Only very few will pull it off, all the way to industrialisation. But that is life I am afraid.
d3