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 competitiveness, 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 fired 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. Read Less