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The great value of this timely, important
book is that it provides an integrated picture of the customer-driven
company of the future. We have begun to learn about lean
production technology, stripped-down management, worker
empowerment, flexible customized manufacturing, and other
modern strategies, but Davidow and Malone show for the first
time how these ideas are fitting together to create a new
kind of corporation and a worldwide business revolution.
Their research is fascinating. The authors
provide illuminating case studies of American, Japanese,
and European companies that have discovered the keys to
improved effectiveness, redesigned their businesses and
their business relationships, and made extraordinary gains.
They also write bluntly and critically about a number of
American corporations that are losing market share by clinging
to outmoded thinking.
Business success in the global marketplace
of the future is going to depend upon corporations producing
"virtual" products high in added value, rich in
variety, and available instantly in response to customer
needs. At the heart of this revolution will be fast new
information technologies; increased emphasis on quality;
accelerated product development; changing management practices,
including new alignments between management and labor; and
new linkages between company, supplier, and consumer, and
between industry and government.
The Virtual Corporation is an important
cutting-edge book that offers a creative synthesis of the
most influential ideas in modern business theory. It has
already fixed excitement and debate in industry, academia,
and government, and it is essential reading for anyone involved
in the leadership of America's business and the shaping
of America's economic future.
William H. Davidow is the author of Marketing
High Technology and is co-author, with Bro Uttal, of
Total Customer Service, both bestsellers. He was
Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Intel Corporation
and a marketing manager for Hewlett Packard's computer group.
He is now general partner of the venture-capital firm Mohr,
Davidow Ventures in Menlo Park, California.
Michael S. Malone is the author of The
Big Score, a highly respected history
of the electronics revolution, and Going
Public: MIPS Computer and the Entrepreneurial Dream.
He is also well known for his interview program, "Malone,"
which is widely syndicated on public television.
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