Everything’s in motion. Digital technology and international
competition are altering the shape and thrust of American busi-
ness. Changing demographics and the ability to use new tech-
nology to identify and serve slices of the population are altering
the marketplace where, increasingly, the niche is all. Certain
venerable industries, such as print journalism, teeter on the
verge of extinction, while new “green” businesses open every
day. We now live and work in the global village that Marshall
McLuhan predicted. In the European Union, national borders
no longer confine workers. In recent years, Eastern Europeans
poured into newly wealthy, high-tech Ireland. When the Irish
economy sagged, Poles working in Ireland returned to their
own reinvigorated economy. The economy of the United States
is also in flux. Just as millions of blue-collar jobs went overseas
in recent decades, more and more white-collar jobs are being
exported. Using the Internet, a couple can save money on their
nuptials in Des Moines by hiring a wedding planner in Banga-
lore. Aided by their fluency in English, now the universal
language of business, professionals in Southeast Asia read
American X-rays and vet American contracts. Instant commu-
nication and digitally enabled social networking are changing
the political as well as the economic map. Markets are freer
everywhere, and so are people, as the Internet magnifies voices
of dissent in such authoritarian nations as Myanmar and Iran.
While mergers and acquisitions continue to create interna-
tional megacorporations, small, agile companies now generate
more new jobs than big traditional industries. Today, Google,
Pixar, and other idea-driven firms that know the worth of their
creative talent get first pick of top-notch new graduates. The
once-dominant Big Three television networks are now owned
or controlled by large corporations, and all three are scrambling
On Becoming a Leader