"A network of individuals in small organizations, working with modern technology, will be much more flexible and more cost effective than most large organizations in producing most products and services. There are some things you have to have large: Aircraft are a good example. But even a Boeing and a Lockheed, a growing share of what they put out is actually produced by subcontractors. They just do final assembly. There's no questioning [the need for] these Boeings and Lockheeds and you need organizations to run the networks, you need the AT&Ts and MCIs out there. But for everything else -- there is a much broader range of opportunity. And the biggest barrier is a psychological one.
The joy of working in Silicon Valley, for reasons of historical accident as much as anything, we effectively destroyed IBM and we didn't even know it. There was not an organization. It was not a plan. We were a large number of small organizations. And most of them came and went. But there's lots of bright people moving around amongst the organizations. We were more efficient than IBM. A couple people saw that ahead of time, like Bill Gates at Microsoft, and grabbed a big chunk of the profits, but everybody else has done pretty well too."
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