Rethinking America

Starred review from May 1, 1995
To meet intensified economic global competition, American businesses and schools must adopt a new mind-set emphasizing teamwork, collaboration and long-term strategy, counsels Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Smith (The Russians). As examples of his mind-set, the former New York Times correspondent provides highly instructive case histories, including Ford Motor's restructuring, which gave more autonomy to individual employees and to work teams; Boeing's collaborative stance toward customers and suppliers; and Motorola's transformation from a hierarchical, command-driven system to one that invites innovation from all staff members and encourages continual education. Smith also favors public-private partnerships, pointing to the success of Sematech, a consortium of 14 high-tech companies and the federal government, launched by President Reagan in 1987 to rescue the U.S. computer chip industry. As for education, he gives high marks to work-study apprenticeships, in high schools from Wisconsin to Maine, designed to equip non-college-bound students with marketable skills; and he visits Central Park East, a Harlem public school built around smaller classes and close cooperation among teachers, students and families. Smith traveled extensively in Japan and Germany, and he believes that American firms can learn a lot from these nations' ``consensus capitalism,'' power-sharing and ``stakeholding,'' whereby banks, workers, institutional investors and home communities share in ownership of corporations or sit on corporate boards. His welcome book is a life raft we ignore at our peril.

February 15, 1995
Advice from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

April 15, 1995
Smith, best-selling author of "The Russians" (1983), "The Power Brokers" (1988), and "The New Russians" (1990), may repeat with this latest volume, which expands on his PBS series, "Challenge to America." Smith calls for "a new mind-set" in U.S. businesses, educational institutions, and culture. "Rethinking America" dissects the giant failures of business behemoths like RCA, GM, and IBM and points up the successes of such "American Innovators" as Motorola and (in recent years) Ford and Boeing as well as Japanese and German firms like Sharp, Toyota, Daimler-Benz, and Mitsubishi. Smith's comparison of U.S. educational systems and policy with those of Japan and Germany highlights how our "tracking" in elementary schools and lack of effective programs for "the neglected majority" of high-school students who "don't" go to college hamstring U.S. competitiveness; Smith offers encouragement, however, in the successes achieved by Deb Meier and her cohorts in Harlem and by business-school partnerships in Wisconsin. Smith's approach to this topic necessarily raises questions about corporate governance and government action that some readers will hate. In fact, there's something in "Rethinking America" to intrigue--and/or to annoy--almost every reader. Expect requests. ((Reviewed Apr. 15, 1995))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1995, American Library Association.)