Review by Choice Review
Historically, multidimensional, hierarchical corporations have settled in large metropolitan areas. The current trend, Heenan argues, is toward open, decentralized, and downsized businesses located in nonmetropolitan settings. There, businesses with new corporate cultures are more productive, more profitable, and better places in which to work. Such changes are a result of international competition and a growing concern with product quality, life-style values, and flattened workplace hierarchies, all made possible by the spread of telecommunications, computerization, rapid mail services, and other so-called distance-minimizing and labor-saving technologies. Heenan tells this story journalistically, presenting numerous thumbnail sketches of nontraditional corporate headquarters and their leaders, and describing the small towns in which they have located. Although the author discusses the downside of downsizing and the deficiencies of small towns, the emphasis is on success. The book, though, lacks a sense of the scale of this phenomenon and serious investigation of its social costs. Nevertheless, this sleek introduction to corporate and spatial restructuring is highly readable and always interesting. Academic and public library collections.-R. A. Beauregard, University of Pittsburgh
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Heenan, a consultant to multinational companies and author of The Re-United States of America (Addison-Wesley, 1983), has put together a collection of examples, anecdotes, and observations illustrating the trend toward corporate relocation of headquarters, manufacturing, and distribution facilities away from major urban areas and explaining some of the reasons for that trend. He identifies and describes the experiences of companies that have done well in small-town or rural settings. He lists the most popular areas and shows why each has become an attractive choice for relocation. Heenan contrasts the advantages and disadvantages of such relocation, explains that such moves are not successful for all companies, and offers a checklist to help decision-makers. This book is recommended for business collections and especially for those libraries that have decided to play an active role in community economic-development efforts. Heenan's notes and bibliography will also prove useful. ~--David Rouse
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
