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Overview
Reveals how the leading computer firms in both the U.S. & Japan lost golden opportunities to dominate the industry & how the battle is being waged successfully today by smaller companies like Microsoft & Intel. The cautiously optimistic message is that American market share in most critical areas has stabilized & that Western firms now have the opportunity to take back the lead — but not without new government policies & new company strategies. A masterful overview of the computer industry, with bold advice for ambitious companies. The analysis is penetrating, but it reads like a detective story.Synopsis
Two business writers and consultants chronicle IBM's rise to computer industry dominance in the 1970s through its decline in the early 1990s when this book was first published. Examining implications at the time for computer companies entering a period of vast opportunity and international competition, the chapters include the rise of the clones, competing in radically decentralized systems, and toward an American technology policy. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Publishers Weekly
Reading more like a consultant's report than a popular narrative, this densely written analysis suggests that small, maverick companies, rather than giants, have the best chance to lead the computer business. At first, Morris ( The Coming Global Boom ) and computer consultant Ferguson draw on anonymous, inside sources to chronicle the decline of IBM, blaming mainly the corporation's managers but also trade barriers raised by both the U.S. and Japan. Then the authors look more broadly at the industry. Noting America's edge in innovation and software, and Asian advantages in manufacturing, they suggest that the battle will be over ``architectures''--the standards that define computer networks--and explore business strategies to control those standards. Only in the final chapters do Ferguson and Morris address industrial policy: they propose a ``pro-technology policy agenda'' that supports basic research and intervenes to prevent other countries from establishing cartels over crucial components. Even more important to industrial growth, the authors note, is a reordering of federal spending in areas such as health care. Author tour. (Feb.)