Chapter 10: American Perestroika

1. Since technology evolves much more rapidly than genes, organizations change shape far more quickly than organisms.

2. The 1971 invention of the microprocessor by Federico Faggin and his team at Intel completed a sequence of innovations that began in the 1940s.

3. In 1959, the transistor's economic potential was unleashed by the invention of the integrated circuit, better known as the "chip." With chip technology, finished electronic circuits already wired together could be engraved onto a single slice of silicon.

4. By delivering on the promise of computer technology, the microprocessor thrust the world's capitalistic economies into a new economic era - the Information Age.

5. The 1982 recession was particularly severe because two otherwise-unrelated factors coincided. First, a decade of monetary mismanagement and runaway inflation abruptly ended. Second, inflation had masked the inefficiency and technological backwardness that had become commonplace among American firms.

6. A recession serves the same purpose as a harsh winter. Weak organizations in each industrial species are weeded out, leaving more room for the survivors to grow.

7. Poorly managed organizations should die. They withdraw more value from society in labor and materials than they return in the form of products.

8. Unemployment - a necessary consequence of allowing firms to go bankrupt- is unquestionably capitalism's roughest edge. Many people seem to believe in a "myth of the firing squad." While workers who lose their jobs face the emotional turmoil of transition, they do not face execution.

9. In an economy where competent organizations are constantly restructuring as they adapt to changing conditions, unemployment is a fact of life.

10. As millions of microprocessors flooded the economy, with little conscious awareness of the fundamental forces at play, and without any plan, the economy spontaneously restructured itself in what amounted to an unsung American perestroika.