A British journalist's matter-of-fact take on how a state- subsidized European consortium has managed to narrow the long lead once held by American manufacturers in the high-stakes competition to equip the world's airlines with jet planes. Drawing on his own reportage as well as secondary sources, Lynn first sets the stage, reviewing the commercial development of jet propulsion after WW II in the United Kingdom and the US. While Europe briefly showed the way (with the Caravelle, the Comet, and the famously unprofitable Concorde), he notes, US airframe makers (Boeing, Convair, Douglas, Lockheed) took most of the orders for passenger jets. Lynn goes on to recount how national pride and economic necessity induced the French to challenge America's dominion in aerospace by establishing Airbus Industrie (AI) within months of Boeing's delivery of its first 747 jumbo jets. Against the odds, the fledgling firm spotted and exploited a gap in the international market, selling enough medium-range, wide-body A300s to keep Paris and the EU partners in business. Continental capitals also used their geopolitical clout, permitting Airbus to adopt the so-called ``silk route'' strategy that gained it significant sales in Asia and the Middle East at the expense of US suppliers. And on the wings of some decidedly concessionary deals, AI even cracked the American market. Although the role government has played in bankrolling Airbus was a real sticking point in recent GATT negotiations, the point was finessed and a trade war averted. Accordingly, Boeing (which is to acquire McDonnell Douglas) faces a less secure future in which it must do battle against a formidable rival that may yet become a limited company accountable to stockholders as well as politicos. While Lynn, a staffer at the Sunday Times of London, writes serviceable prose at best, this is a workmanlike briefing on a consequential clash affecting the latter-day wealth of nations.
Pub Date: March 24, 1997
ISBN: 1-56858-086-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
A welcome contribution from a newcomer who provides both a different view and balance in addressing one of the country's...
A fresh, provocative analysis of the debate on education and employment.
Up-and-coming economist Moretti (Economics/Univ. of California, Berkeley) takes issue with the “[w]idespread misconception…that the problem of inequality in the United States is all about the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99 percent.” The most important aspect of inequality today, he writes, is the widening gap between the 45 million workers with college degrees and the 80 million without—a difference he claims affects every area of peoples' lives. The college-educated part of the population underpins the growth of America's economy of innovation in life sciences, information technology, media and other areas of globally leading research work. Moretti studies the relationship among geographic concentration, innovation and workplace education levels to identify the direct and indirect benefits. He shows that this clustering favors the promotion of self-feeding processes of growth, directly affecting wage levels, both in the innovative industries as well as the sectors that service them. Indirect benefits also accrue from knowledge and other spillovers, which accompany clustering in innovation hubs. Moretti presents research-based evidence supporting his view that the public and private economic benefits of education and research are such that increased federal subsidies would more than pay for themselves. The author fears the development of geographic segregation and Balkanization along education lines if these issues of long-term economic benefits are left inadequately addressed.
A welcome contribution from a newcomer who provides both a different view and balance in addressing one of the country's more profound problems.Pub Date: May 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-75011-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
An informative and creatively multilayered Google guidebook from the businessman’s perspective.
Two distinguished technology executives share the methodology behind what made Google a global business leader.
Former Google CEO Schmidt (co-author: The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, 2013) and former senior vice president of products Rosenberg share accumulated wisdom and business acumen from their early careers in technology, then later as management at the Internet search giant. Though little is particularly revelatory or unexpected, the companywide processes that have made Google a household name remain timely and relevant within today’s digitized culture. After several months at Google, the authors found it necessary to retool their management strategies by emphasizing employee culture, codifying company values, and rethinking the way staff is internally positioned in order to best compliment their efforts and potential. Their text places “Googlers” front and center as they adopted the business systems first implemented by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who stressed the importance of company-wide open communication. Schmidt and Rosenberg discuss the value of technological insights, Google’s effective “growth mindset” hiring practices, staff meeting maximization, email tips, and the company’s effective solutions to branding competition and product development complications. They also offer a condensed, two-page strategy checklist that serves as an apt blueprint for managers. At times, statements leak into self-congratulatory territory, as when Schmidt and Rosenberg insinuate that a majority of business plans are flawed and that the Google model is superior. Analogies focused on corporate retention and methods of maximizing Google’s historically impressive culture of “smart creatives” reflect the firm’s legacy of spinning intellect and creativity into Internet gold. The authors also demarcate legendary application missteps like “Wave” and “Buzz” while applauding the independent thinkers responsible for catapulting the company into the upper echelons of technological innovation.
An informative and creatively multilayered Google guidebook from the businessman’s perspective.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1455582341
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Business Plus/Grand Central
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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