Not necessarily true either. All organizations ideally have a goal. Vision. Mission, whatever you choose to call it. People at the top decide on that goal, and they decide on a strategy that might let them reach their goal.

That strategy should start by considering the things that cannot be changed (legislation like GDPR, maybe scalability, availability of resource, or health and safety regulations).

The leaders would then consider mutable factors, things they DO control like number of employees, technology options, business model, geographic location.

These two broad things (immutable and mutable factors) will lead to a list of things that need doing to achieve world domination. Sorry, I mean success.

That list of tasks is handed off to employees who will repeat a similar process within their areas at a more granular level.

Good reporting up and down the chain allows people at all levels of the organization to adjust course when needed, with a level of autonomy suited to whatever level you're in within the organization.

If the organisation is small enough people at the bottom may will seek out people at the top for direction.

No cult required.

"That list of tasks is handed off to employees who will repeat a similar process within their areas at a more granular level.

Good reporting up and down the chain allows people at all levels of the organization to adjust course when needed, with a level of autonomy suited to whatever level you're in within the organization."

Yeah this is the part that is missing at shopify from my experience. And it has caused all sorts of brutal problems and mental health issues for people.