Technological Innovations & Transferance, 20th Century American History - Economic Aspects - Post World War II, Quality Control - General & Miscellaneous, Economic Policies in the United States, Strategies for Managers, Economic & Industrial Aspects of Te

Rethinking America

Name: Rethinking America
Author: Hedrick Smith
ISBN: 9780679435518

by Hedrick Smith

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Overview

Measuring this country against its major competitors, Smith shows how global competition has radically altered the way people work, what schools need to teach, and the nature of power and people's relationships on the job. With one insightful story after another, he reveals what goes on inside grade school and high school classrooms and inside big corporations and small companies in the three main capitalist economies; how that affects our future; and why today's greatest need is a new mind-set. In revealing portraits, Smith contrasts how American CEOs think at giants such as GM, Boeing, Motorola, compared to CEOs at Germany's Daimler-Benz and Deutsche Bank or at Japan's Toyota or Mitsubishi. He discloses how differently decisions are made and power is wielded in the corporate boardrooms of America, Germany, and Japan. He shows us what workers think and do in these rival economies and how the lives of workers at companies such as Ford and Motorola were transformed once management began rethinking its approach. Education is where the race begins. Smith contrasts what American grade school teachers emphasize, compared with the skills and values taught elsewhere. He shows how businessmen in Germany and Japan cooperate with educators in creating programs to prepare "mid-kids" - average high school students - for solid careers and how innovative American communities are developing similar strategies.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

To meet intensified economic global competition, American businesses and schools must adopt a new mind-set emphasizing teamwork, collaboration and long-term strategy, counsels Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Smith (The Russians). As examples of his mind-set, the former New York Times correspondent provides highly instructive case histories, including Ford Motor's restructuring, which gave more autonomy to individual employees and to work teams; Boeing's collaborative stance toward customers and suppliers; and Motorola's transformation from a hierarchical, command-driven system to one that invites innovation from all staff members and encourages continual education. Smith also favors public-private partnerships, pointing to the success of Sematech, a consortium of 14 high-tech companies and the federal government, launched by President Reagan in 1987 to rescue the U.S. computer chip industry. As for education, he gives high marks to work-study apprenticeships, in high schools from Wisconsin to Maine, designed to equip non-college-bound students with marketable skills; and he visits Central Park East, a Harlem public school built around smaller classes and close cooperation among teachers, students and families. Smith traveled extensively in Japan and Germany, and he believes that American firms can learn a lot from these nations' ``consensus capitalism,'' power-sharing and ``stakeholding,'' whereby banks, workers, institutional investors and home communities share in ownership of corporations or sit on corporate boards. His welcome book is a life raft we ignore at our peril. (June)

Library Journal

Advice from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Mary Carroll

Smith, best-selling author of "The Russians" (1983), "The Power Brokers" (1988), and "The New Russians" (1990), may repeat with this latest volume, which expands on his PBS series, "Challenge to America." Smith calls for "a new mind-set" in U.S. businesses, educational institutions, and culture. "Rethinking America" dissects the giant failures of business behemoths like RCA, GM, and IBM and points up the successes of such "American Innovators" as Motorola and (in recent years) Ford and Boeing as well as Japanese and German firms like Sharp, Toyota, Daimler-Benz, and Mitsubishi. Smith's comparison of U.S. educational systems and policy with those of Japan and Germany highlights how our "tracking" in elementary schools and lack of effective programs for "the neglected majority" of high-school students who "don't" go to college hamstring U.S. competitiveness; Smith offers encouragement, however, in the successes achieved by Deb Meier and her cohorts in Harlem and by business-school partnerships in Wisconsin. Smith's approach to this topic necessarily raises questions about corporate governance and government action that some readers will hate. In fact, there's something in "Rethinking America" to intrigue--and/or to annoy--almost every reader. Expect requests.

From Barnes & Noble

In this provocative portrait of America at crucial crossroads, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author takes us inside the country's schools & businesses to show how our traditional approaches to commerce & education have begun to change in innovative ways in order to compete in the global economy.