Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993 TAG: 9305160216
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by LARRY SHIELD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Subtitled "How the West Can Win in a Post-IBM World," this book is divided into two parts, the first fascinating and the second a polemic for a national industrial policy.
The first section is a slashing indictment of the mismanagement of IBM. Sparing no feelings, the authors rip the managers of IBM for the way they took the dominant company in the computer industry and drove it so far into the ground that its very existence is questionable. The numbers of bad decisions made by senior IBM managers between 1978 and 1992 chart a perfect course of how to ruin a company.
The authors cite the 13-year anti-trust trial brought by the Johnson administration as the root cause of the decline. But having established government meddling as the basis of their arguments for the decline of IBM, the authors then, unbelievably, switch horses and defend government meddling by calling for a national industrial policy.
Taking Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry as a model, the authors use the second part of their book to try to defend the idea that a national industrial policy will help our economy. One look at Medicare, the Veteran's Administration and the Office of Drug Management counters any argument the authors make to the contrary.
In conclusion, buy only the first half of the book. If you local bookseller will not divide it, just stop at page 97 for an insightful management case study. Venture past page 97 at you own risk - you may enter the Twilight Zone.
Larry Shield trains dogs and horses in Franklin County.
by CNB