“Are you a communist?” The question came from a chief executive who was so puzzled by my endorsement of flatter organisational structures that he assumed I must be politically motivated. What, he wondered, was so bad about hierarchies? It is a good question.

At a time when many organisations are striving to create a more level playing field for employees, few will be able to succeed without understanding that the effort is really a response to more than a decade of institutional failures. These include what may be called sins of commission — such as mis-selling, Libor and Forex manipulation, or market and customer abuse. They also include sins of omission: specifically, the failure of established businesses to innovate or to respond to competitive threats by disrupters.

Why did huge hotel companies not take Airbnb seriously? Why did car manufacturers dally in developing electric or autonomous cars?