I agree with pretty much everything you've said, but the point is that AC was (Accenture is) a consulting company which is all about selling services and impression management (and seldom about the substance of the work, which is frequently copy-paste-and-edit stuff pulled out of Lotus Notes with the previous client's name and particulars replaced with the new client's), so the reward structure strongly mirrors what's good for the organization. And forcing people -- often excellent people -- out of the organization is actually a _beneficial_ side effect. (Yes, this is a very cynical view of management consulting, but I think I have some credibility here.)

The problem with Microsoft -- assuming we're talking about an accurate representation of their system -- is that the reward structure rewards visibility rather than results, but the organization actually wants results.