Companies that follow proprietary models are doomed to suffer the consequences of trying to make a hefty profit from something that is free or low cost elsewhere. The information superhighway is littered with failed attempts at centralized control. Even the largest companies are now coming to embrace the emerging standards of the Internet rather than create or pursue their own proprietary visions. For the Internet, the smarter course is to embrace emerging standards and innovate within them. There is no central control of anything in terms of a single authority.
Fish swim in schools without any single fish being in charge.
Birds don't need a Monday morning staff call to decide when to migrate south. The Internet operates more like nature than a man-made assembly line. The presently acknowledged defining companies of the Internet era like Netscape, Sun, and Yahoo understand this and apply it to how they function. They are committed to achieving performance goals but they are also thoroughly decentralized. They're organized around dynamic teams that define their own work conditions within the context of a strategic vision and shared benefit for all.