Last year an ex-Apple engineer grumbled that Apple has been slow to innovate. The former engineer further noted that Tim Cook converted Apple "from a dynamic change-maker into a boring operations company." It's not uncommon for ex-employees to lash out at their former employer. Yet at times such commentary could provide outsiders with a peek into how some at Apple really feel. Of course there's a segment of the Apple community that feels that innovation at Apple died along with Steve Jobs. Others, especially shareholders, would gladly peel the skin off your face if you even utter such sentiments. The same is likely true at every major Silicon Valley company, including Google.

In fact a Senior Google engineer by the name of Steve Yegge, who was with Google since 2005, has just left the company and criticized it for becoming "100% competitor-focused" and said the company "can no longer innovate."

Sound familiar? And yet it's always interesting to hear from those who feel a conviction to speak out against their former employer because not all could be exaggerated or lies.

Yesterday Steve Yegge wrote a blog post (January 23), about his decision to quit the Google. Yegge wrote: "The main reason I left Google is that they can no longer innovate. They've pretty much lost that ability. I believe there are several contributing factors.

First, they're conservative: They are so focused on protecting what they've got, that they fear risk-taking and real innovation. Gatekeeping and risk aversion at Google are the norm rather the exception."

Second, they are mired in politics, which is sort of inevitable with a large enough organization.

Third, Google is arrogant. It has taken me years to understand that a company full of humble individuals can still be an arrogant company. When a company is as dramatically successful as Google has been, the organization can become afflicted with a sense of invincibility and almost manifest destiny, which leads to tragic outcomes: complacency, not-invented-here syndrome, loss of touch with customers, poor strategic decision-making. The company's strategy is a mess.

Fourth, last, and probably worst of all, Google has become 100% competitor-focused rather than customer focused. They've made a weak attempt to pivot from this, with their new internal slogan 'Focus on the user and all else will follow.' But unfortunately it's just lip service.

You can look at Google's entire portfolio of launches over the past decade, and trace nearly all of them to copying a competitor: Google+ (Facebook), Google Cloud (AWS), Google Home (Amazon Echo), Allo (WhatsApp), Android Instant Apps (Facebook, WeChat), Google Assistant (Apple/Siri), and on and on and on. They are stuck in me-too mode and have been for years. They simply don't have innovation in their DNA any more. And it's because their eyes are fixed on their competitors, not their customers.

To be fair, there are exceptions. Google's Cloud Spanner, BigQuery, TensorFlow, Waymo and a few others are generational innovations and will take some time for the industry to catch up with. But they do not excuse nor justify the parade of failed me-too consumer products that Google has been launching of late.

In short, Google just isn't a very inspiring place to work anymore. I love being fired up by my work, but Google had gradually beaten it out of me."

Of course many people leaving a company could be a little bitter and we're likely to hear from some of Yegge's former colleagues lash out at him for being so harsh on his former employer and yet it's an honest perspective of a long standing senior staff engineer, not the janitor, and so his views carry some weight.

You could learn more about Yegge's story and his recent move to Grab (an Uber competitor), by checking out his full blog post here.

Besides Apple, who do you think is the most innovative company in Silicon Valley today and why? Send in your comments below.

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