Couldn't agree with you more Toby, and pointed out in a recent posting myself that it is possible to have a successful Sharepoint deployment. However, organization must accept the reality that all prerequisites required for a successful public-facing site, also apply to an intranet. Namely (and as you point out) a strategy, followed by good governance to include a proper decision-making body that can codify, disseminate and enforce Web policies and standards. I would take a slight issue with your comment that you would "be amazed to learn how the intranet managers or executives in these companies actually got their jobs" since over the years I have seen a lot of good executives in charge of the Web, but unable to finagle C-level folks into either defining a Web strategy or delegate authority to do so. But I wholeheartedly agree with you that it is unacceptable that in this day and age we can have that many Sharepoint installations (or any-technology based intranet site really) without sound strategy. Thanks again for a great post!