There are a lot of cynical comments in this thread about large headcounts being a result of mismanagement, complexity, and bloat. But there's another, more virtuous and reasonable, answer to this question.
Let's say you are an employee at Apple, and you come up with a very small innovation for the iPhone. Something like making it a bit easier to set a wakeup alarm. Or decreasing the download sizes so that new software updates go 20% faster. And let's say, just for argument, that this small improvement corresponds to 1 penny of value for each user.
Well, there are 1.5e9 iPhone users. So your $1e-2 contribution per user just created 1.5e7 dollars of value - enough to justify your whole TC for years.
Sorry, what is the explanation for large headcounts in your comment? Are you saying hire more people because more people results in more innovation? I’m not following.
Let's say you are an employee at Apple, and you come up with a very small innovation for the iPhone. Something like making it a bit easier to set a wakeup alarm. Or decreasing the download sizes so that new software updates go 20% faster. And let's say, just for argument, that this small improvement corresponds to 1 penny of value for each user.
Well, there are 1.5e9 iPhone users. So your $1e-2 contribution per user just created 1.5e7 dollars of value - enough to justify your whole TC for years.