Description
Like a series of seismic shocks, the changes of the 1970s and early 1980s began reshaping the business landscape. Large corpo- rations floundered. They downsized and divested, redrew their organizational charts, and (as they like to say) redefined their mis- sions. Some fell victim to the takeover wars. Meanwhile, newer and smaller companies sprouted up and nosed their way into nich- es opened up by the economic tremors. Gradually, without most of us seeing what was happening, these new companies began playing a critical role in our economy
The effect? Willy-nilly, Americans began looking for jobs and opportunities outside the ranks of the nation's largest corpora- tions. Willy-nilly, businesspeople began learning to survive in a marketplace in which the fiercest competitors were companies they had, scarcely heard of. Throughout the 1980s, people with ideas or inventions flocked to create new businesses. So did peo- ple who were simply fed up with the new uncertainties of corpo- rate life. The big companies were still there. But they weren't where the action was.
From the Ground Up is the story of this new economy: where it came from, how we first learned of it, and what made it different.
-Foreword, From the Ground Up
