OT: Microsoft takes on history

["Frank J. Lhota" <NOSPAM.lhota.adarose@verizon.net>]

All of this reminds me of the economic bestseller "The New Industrial
State", written by the renowned Harvard professor and former presidential
advisor, John Kenneth Galbraith. In this highly influential book, Galbraith
states that

"The riskiness of modern corporate life is in fact the harmless conceit of
the modern corporate executive ... no large United States corporation, which
is also large in its industry, has failed or been seriously in danger of
insolvency in many years. [General Motors] is large enough to control its
markets "

The idea that leading corporations are invincible seems quite in tune with a
lot of current economic thought. In spite of this, the book is now a bit
embarrassing; it is now quoted more by Galbraith's opponents than by his
defenders. The problem with "The New Industrial State" is that it was
written in 1967, and since then many of the book's examples of companies
that were unbeatable has taken a beating. Contrary to the book's contention,
we have seen major retailers go bankrupt: we may soon see K-Mart join the
ranks of Montgomery Ward, Grants, Gimbels , and Child World. GM has lost
control of its market. Galbraith does write about a retailer whose dominance
cannot be challenged, but it was not Wal-Mart. And in the area of computers,
this tome treats the very idea that some guys working out of a garage could
threaten IBM's dominance with great derision.

In short, the notion that Microsoft is impervious to challengers from
smaller companies (are there any other kind) should be taken with a grain of
salt. Microsoft once played the role of David against IBM's Goliath; now
that Microsoft is in the role of Goliath, it would take just one company
with the next great new idea to bring MS to its knees.