I apologize if someone said this already...lots and lots of comments to read through. Here's something that I don't think has really come up in all of this. Yes, you need someone with the idea (and the wherewithal to see it through), and someone who really knows their stuff to make it happen. But the one thing that everyone seems to be missing is adoption. Without a way to get the word out and get people to _try_ your idea, the best ideas, with the best implementations, are going to go nowhere. I'm not a marketing nerd by any means, but I also really think that you need some sort of plan (and a person to think through the plan) of how to get the word out on your great idea. And the person who had the idea, and the person who implemented it, are rarely the ones who think about how to do this.

Back in the hey-day of cross-browser compatibility, before CSS really took a good hold and everyone had moved to IE, I used to spend a LOT of time making things work cross-browser. A lot of the work I did was not strictly within the current HTML DOM, as things needed to be built with a combination of IE, Netscape, and DOM compliance. During one project, I built a series of HTML templates for a client who was having the application written by another company, but wanted me to do the front-end design. Because the developer was stalling for time, they ran a strict HTML verification program against my code and sent back a HUGE list of issues. I spent an afternoon responding to each individual issue, explaining why this was either (a) not really an issue, or (b) because of the layout/design, the only way to "fix" the issue would be to redesign the entire page. The problem was that, when viewed on screen in any contemporary browser, the pages worked fine. I was able to make a very good argument against ALL of their issues, and turn their attempt to make me look bad against them. What this boils down to is this...document the hell out of their responses, with specific reasons why each issue is not an issue. It may take some time and effort, but at the end of the day you'll make the VP happy, prove (again) that you have the capabilities to perform at your job, and make yourself look good. It's a pain in the ass, but will be worth it in the end.