Tom Davenport explains why Enterprise Web 2.0 won't take off, but I think he misunderstands what it would be used for. No one thinks that all employees have equally good ideas about how to run the company. The point is to use processes that do allow good ideas to filter to the top, regardless of where they came from.
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Decentralized decision-making is not primarily a matter of technology: it is primarily a matter of organizational design and culture. Technology can be used to support either centralization or decentralization.
Except in a very small organization, a good idea should not usually have to go “all the way to the top.” If innovations can normally only get done with CEO support, then the organization is too centralized.
I think Davenport is right to say that “Most of the barriers that prevent knowledge from flowing freely in organizations – power differentials, lack of trust, missing incentives, unsupportive cultures, and the general busyness of employees today – won’t be addressed or substantially changed by technology alone.” In the research for my book on making speed a competitive advantage I was excited to find companies who had blown through the obstacles and “let the best idea win.” I was later very depressed to see that even companies who had reaped tremendous innovations from openness had allowed the door to be slammed shut by their bureaucracy. It is a deep rooted cultural issue.