Finally, at the end of the meeting, Donahoe came to a decision: “Alright,” he said, addressing Abraham and Palmer, “you guys have carte blanche to do this. Any resources you need, any money, any human capital, you’ve got it. The only thing that I ask is that you don’t tell anyone about what you’re doing.” […] Within moments, the two of them were at a laptop, scouring eBay’s internal site for offices around the world where they could work completely under the radar.

This is a fascinating story about how eBay struggled to innovate and eventually won out. Punctuated evolution requires innovation at the edges. Find yourself a multi-disciplinary squad, put them in a room together, give them implicit permission, shut the door, stand guard.