[OPE-L] private enterprise firms

From: Rakesh Bhandari (bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU)
Date: Fri Jan 26 2007 - 02:08:53 EST


Yes Allin you said what I wanted to say. James K Galbraith has written
an introduction to the reprint of his father's The New Industrial State
(Princeton). I found this bit on the web:

Technology dictates that markets must be controlled. The products that
define modern life -automobiles, jet aircraft, electric power, microchips,
and cable television- cannot be produced except over long lead times and
by integrating vast networks of engineering talent. This requires
planning. Tasks must be subdivided so that organized knowledge -chemistry,
metallurgy, optics, physics- can be used. The subdivided tasks must then
be assembled. Customers must be found, and if possible, well in advance.
These are the tasks of the Technostructure: the network of professionals
who actually manage organizations. Sometimes the planning goes wrong. But
the uncertainties are mainly technical and organizational, rather than
caused by the market. In an interesting example, at present Airbus has
firm customers for its A380; what it lacks are the actual planes.


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