> however it's really hard to argue that Apple, Microsoft, or indeed IBM or Disney ever killed the geese that lay the golden eggs.

In this context, you're not talking about the geese, but about the eggs. For example, for Apple, one such golden egg is the iPhone, and what Kay talks about is how there are many capable people to turn this golden egg (invention) into coins or platinum (product => shareholder value).

But the geese are not the products; the geese are the inventors. Jobs turned the failing Apple around from outside its own context. Microsoft missed out on the entire phone eco-system. Lots of people would attribute these long-term business fails to exactly what Kay talks about here.

Fair enough, but if one follows your reasoning, then Apple didn't kill the geese laying the golden eggs, they killed (or failed to let live) the geese about to lay golden eggs.

Which makes more sense. It's hard to kill successful projects, but incredibly easy to build an atmosphere where creative people and new ideas are not welcome.

Jobs gutted Apples version of PARC when he came back, yet somehow it kick-started Apples greatest ever period of innovation.

Which, fittingly, involved getting rid of Alan Kay.

Eh Disney came closer than they would have liked during the second half of the Eisner era. They released some bombs (e.g. Treasure Planet) and the quality of the parks was decreasing because of Eisner’s cost cutting.

Reminds me of seeing Tom Peters at Planet Tivoli one year, raving about big, dumb companies to 10,000 loyal big bluers. It's not hard to argue about golden eggs dying at these big companies. I won two Master Innovation Catalyst awards in IBM's Thinkplace program, and I firmly believe now that if you want innovation, you have to think small.

Except when Apple forced Jobs to step down in the 90s.