WOW!!! Great article, a bird eye’s view of the state of the art but the bird is not flying high enough! This issue could well fill a book which, of course, I’m not going to write. 
I’m going to write a fuller reply later on today or tomorrow. For now just some background.
Consider, for example, IBM’s decision to outsource the microprocessor for its PC business to Intel, and its operating system to Microsoft. IBM made these decisions in the early 1980s in order to focus on what it did best—designing, assembling, and marketing computer systems.
I started my professional career as a programmer at an IBM Service Bureau in 1960. I loved the company and admired the founder’s philosophy, Thomas Watson Sr. He learned or practiced his trade (sales) at The National Cash Register Company (NCR). After IBM I worked for one year at NCR as a programmer and later as a sales rep. NCR’s founder, J. H. Patterson was possibly the first to systematize the art of selling. These two jobs gave me a lot of insights into both companies.
Fast forward some 15 years, after ten years as a management consultant and five selling insurance I became an Apple reseller, selling Apple ][ and Apple /// mostly to business customers and in competition with the IBM PC.
Fast forward another 15 years or so and I took up investing, learning a lot at several TMF boards and reading many books on both management and investing. It was during this period that I read Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations which should be required reading for investors and business leaders. This is my background for discussing these issues.
But just now I have to take advantage of a break in the weather to go walking.
The Captain