This is a problem.<p>1.<p>You have to put one person in charge of an app or project so that she takes care of maintenance. But putting one person in charge - as the article says - "gives executives no incentive to say their product line is on the decline and the technology used by a rival group will be the next big trend."<p>2.<p>But if you don't put one person in charge, the problem of getting good ideas improve. But it raises another problem: maintenance suffers. No one takes the responsibility of maintenance.<p>Its a catch-22. I think there has to be a mix of both the models: 1. Hierarchy for accountability. 2. Councils for idea generation. 3. And a mechanism that both models work well together.