i didn't dish out my displeasure because i enjoy this sort of thing, the person who was the target was saying things right in front of my eyes that clearly called for someone to point it out. it was blowing my mind that nobody was pointing out how juvenile and self-contradictory it was.

anyway, it's like you say. if you innovate and empower people, they will return it back to you many times over, because of the profit of their increased productivity. that's why apple was such a success. the two steves built their apple pc in the garage back when everyone else in IT said nobody would buy them. it's exactly the same thing. make something people don't know they want yet, then people buy it, and because you are in there first, you get the cream of the revenue for quite some time until the market gets too tight.