TABLE OF CONTENTS Throughout the 1970s and 1980s business management forums were dominated by discussions about the increasing globalization of industry. But it was not until the 1990s that the full impact of globalization was actually realized: a very tough business environment in which only the best-prepared and best-managed companies survive. In many cases, the surviving companies have thrived to an unprecedented degree by growing both organically and through acquisitions.
In some respects, the decade of the 1990s was a buy-or-be-bought decade. The fiscally strong companies have consumed the weaker ones and often become quite large. But size alone has not been enough to prevent acquisition. Some of the larger companies in the world, even in traditionally untouchable industry segments, have been acquired in the past decade or so, sometimes even by smaller firms with fiscal strength and tough management.
Globalization has created a difficult environment marked by an incredible degree of organizational downsizing or perhaps, to be more politically correct, rightsizing. Some organizations are now doing an increased level of business with half of their original workforce. Some of the downsizing has been the result of technological advances, but most of it is motivated by a desire to reduce labor costs as much as possible without hampering productivity. The impact on the people working in these environments has been harsh. Longevity and loyalty seem to have lost their value in many organizations, and many employees feel they are regarded as mere piece-parts and numbers rather...
