Why Companies Kill Their Smartest People

And why that’s the fastest path to stagnation and death

This article is inspired by a valued colleague who was once called “corrosive”—simply because he pointed to an unsolved problem. A problem so deep it touched the very existence of his department. Instead of engaging, the leader’s only response was to demand more statistics. More micromanagement. More wasted hours, draining the team’s energy away from solving real issues.

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Every company today can buy the same tools. Hardware, software, cloud platforms, AI models—you can swipe a credit card and have them by tomorrow morning. Access is no longer the differentiator.

So why do some companies fly while others crawl?

It’s not the tech. It’s the people—and how much freedom they’re given to use those tools smartly, with customers at the center.

Some teams make it look obvious in hindsight. They combine the same building blocks as everyone else, but the outcome feels inevitable, almost elegant. Others choke on the same resources, drowning in complexity, politics, and fear.

The deciding factor isn’t capital or code. It’s courage. The courage of the people inside to call things as they are, connect dots others ignore, and push ideas that feel uncomfortable.

And yet, those are the very people companies keep killing off.

The Death of the “Smart Ones”

It happens quietly. A manager feels threatened. A leader doesn’t like being challenged in front of the team. Someone labels a sharp colleague as “too much”—or worse, “corrosive”—because they’re willing to point out what’s broken instead of pleasing the boss.

So they don’t get hired. Or they get passed over. Or they’re shown the door.

In the short term, it feels like stability. Hierarchies remain intact. Egos stay unbruised. Everyone looks aligned in the meeting.

But underneath, the rot sets in.

• You lose adaptability.

• Competitors snap up the people you rejected.

• Your culture shifts toward safety, not smarts.

• Everyone else learns: don’t challenge, don’t question, don’t stick your neck out.

That’s how companies die—not because the market moved too fast, but because they clipped their own wings.

Case Study 1: Kodak’s Self-Sabotage

In 1975, a Kodak engineer named Steven Sasson built the first digital camera. He walked into the boardroom with a clunky prototype and a warning: This will disrupt film photography.

The executives dismissed it. Too threatening. Too disruptive to the core business. Sasson was told to keep quiet. Kodak doubled down on film.

By the time the market caught up, it was too late. Kodak had fired, sidelined, or silenced the very people who could have saved it.

The irony? They weren’t killed by competitors. They were killed by their own refusal to let smart people be “too much.”

Case Study 2: Nokia’s Blind Spot

In the mid-2000s, Nokia’s engineers warned leadership about the iPhone. They saw the risk, built working touchscreen prototypes, and raised alarms. But leadership felt untouchable.

Some of the smartest engineers left, frustrated by a culture that punished honesty. Within five years, Nokia’s market share collapsed from 50% to single digits.

Again, not because the tools weren’t there—but because the culture punished people who dared to say what others didn’t want to hear.

Case Study 3: The Netflix Way