Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries

"Chandler describes how Radio Corporation of America shaped the consumer electronics industry from its beginnings in the 1920s to the 1960s. He explains how catastrophic management decisions that brought about the collapse of RCA opened the door to Sony and Matsushita and ultimately to Japan's worldwide conquest of consumer electronics markets. At the same time, Chandler shows that the computer industry has been a strikingly American triumph. Readers will discover a wealth of penetrating insights in Chandler's riveting account of the rise of the mainframe, the minicomputer, and the microprocessor. What is more, Chandler documents the surprising and little-known fact that first mover IBM dominated the computer industry from the 1950s to the 1990s and that the Japanese, first by making IBM plug-compatibles and later with their large systems and servers, became its major competitors." Only by following the history of firms that commercialized these new technologies and knowing the details of competitive success and failure can managers truly understand their industries. Inventing the Electronic Century is timely and essential reading for every manager and student of high technology.

Author(s): Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.  

ISBN 10: 0743215672
ISBN 13: 9780743215671
Pages: 336