Comment by Qwertious
>No consistent leadership vision or direction
On the other hand, random side-projects are necessary for finding new ground before it craters you - like how Microsoft was absolutely cratered by the "smartphone" thing and their too-little-too-late Windows Phone.
Microsoft didn't need a side project to figure that out, though. Hell, WinMo was already one of the two major smartphone/PDA OSes long before iPhone was a thing.