You hit the nail on the head. "Total lack of coherence" is the best way to describe the vast majority of the large corporate environments I have worked in during my career as a software engineer. All this talk of focusing on "one thing" is just more noise drowned out by the conflicting, in many cases contradictory "one things" the average corporate drone will receive from their many layers of superiors on a regular basis. The one unmistakable conclusion that I have taken from this is that corporations do not scale effectively. Everyone can have their "one thing" when your business is small, but once you reach a critical threshold, everyone's "one thing" doesn't make any sense in the broader context - unless, as you state, the leadership is dictatorial. In which case, good luck retaining the best/brightest/most creative individuals that are lifeblood of any successful business. People are not robots; it takes a nuanced leadership style that understands both the business and the nature of how creative individuals work, to truly be a successful leader. But that's not something you can quote in a four paragraph puff piece blog post.
Dictators can work well when they are insanely talented, motivated, and tuned into their minions. Being a trusted minion of a powerful dictator has provided the most effective, fun, coordinated experiences of my career so far.
On the other hand, they are a single point of failure. When someone succeeds from outside in pushing the dictator out, chaos ensues. Some will thrive under the ensuing autonomy as they see room to advance their own agenda, but many of the most talented will move on if they perceive that the team is in a degraded state. Worst of all, being a trusted minion of the prior dictator leaves you with a suspect role when a new dictator grabs the throne. Experiencing this is somewhat painful and complicates your weighted decision heuristic for what to do with the rest of your life. Will things get better? How long do I wait? Could I possibly reinvent myself to the degree that e.g. patio11 was able? etc.
