All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted.They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes wouldtherefore shortly beginto fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into thecauses or America's industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled withwarnings about the growing competition from overseas.

　　How things have changed! In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solidgrowth while Japanhas been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obviouscauses as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt bas yielded io blindpride. "American industry has changed itsstructure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be morequickwitted," according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvard's Kennedy School ofGovernment. ”It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses areimproving their productivity," says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank inWashington D.C. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people willlook back on this period as "a golden age of business management in che United States.”

　　長(zhǎng)時(shí)問(wèn)且不費(fèi)力的成功史可能成為一種可怕的阻礙。但是，如果處理得當(dāng)，它可以變成一種動(dòng)力。二戰(zhàn)結(jié)束后，美國(guó)進(jìn)入了一個(gè)熠熠生輝的時(shí)期，它的市場(chǎng)規(guī)模是任何一個(gè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手的八部以上，這使得它的產(chǎn)業(yè)經(jīng)濟(jì)規(guī)模無(wú)與倫比。它的科學(xué)家是世界上最出色的，它的工人在技術(shù)上是最棒的。[1]美國(guó)和美國(guó)人的繁榮富裕是那些經(jīng)濟(jì)受到戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)摧毀的歐洲人和亞洲人所難以想象的。

　　這種獨(dú)占鰲頭的情形隨著其他國(guó)家日漸強(qiáng)盛，不可避免地被削弱。同樣不可避免的是逐漸失去統(tǒng)治地位的痛苦滋味。[2]到了20世紀(jì)80年代中期，美國(guó)人困惑地發(fā)現(xiàn)他們的產(chǎn)業(yè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力逐漸衰落。一些大的美國(guó)產(chǎn)業(yè)，如電子消費(fèi)品，已經(jīng)在外國(guó)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)下萎縮或消失。到了l987年，只有一家美國(guó)電視制造公司——“頂點(diǎn)”公司存留下來(lái)。(現(xiàn)在則蕩然無(wú)存：“頂點(diǎn)”已在7月份被南韓LG電子公司收購(gòu)。)外國(guó)生產(chǎn)的汽車和紡織品席卷了美國(guó)國(guó)內(nèi)市場(chǎng)。美國(guó)的機(jī)床制造業(yè)處境艱難。曾經(jīng)有一段時(shí)間，連美國(guó)發(fā)明的處于新的電腦時(shí)代核心地位的半導(dǎo)體制造業(yè)看上去也將成為下一個(gè)犧牲品。

　　[3]所有這一切導(dǎo)致了一場(chǎng)信心危機(jī)。美國(guó)人不再把繁榮當(dāng)作理所當(dāng)然的事情。他們開(kāi)始相信他們做生意的辦法不對(duì)頭，他們的收入也會(huì)因此很快下降。在80年代中期人們對(duì)美國(guó)產(chǎn)業(yè)衰退的原因提出一個(gè)又一個(gè)的質(zhì)疑。[4]他們間或拋出的聳人聽(tīng)聞的調(diào)查結(jié)果充滿了關(guān)于海外經(jīng)濟(jì)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力增長(zhǎng)的警告。

　　形勢(shì)改變得多快啊!1995年，美國(guó)可以回顧過(guò)去五年里經(jīng)濟(jì)的穩(wěn)步增長(zhǎng)，而日本則一直在苦苦掙扎。[5]很少美國(guó)人把這個(gè)原因單純地歸結(jié)為美元貶值或商業(yè)周期轉(zhuǎn)變這樣明顯的原因。自我懷疑為盲目自大所替代。按照哈佛大學(xué)肯尼迪政府學(xué)院的行政院長(zhǎng)理查德·卡佛納的說(shuō)法，“美國(guó)產(chǎn)業(yè)改變了結(jié)構(gòu)，進(jìn)行了瘦身運(yùn)動(dòng)，學(xué)會(huì)了如何更加機(jī)敏地反應(yīng)”。“看到我們的工商業(yè)怎么提高生產(chǎn)力讓我為自己是個(gè)美國(guó)人而感到驕傲，”華盛頓特區(qū)的智囊團(tuán)卡托學(xué)會(huì)的史蒂芬·摩爾如是說(shuō)。而哈佛大學(xué)商學(xué)院的威廉·薩爾曼相信人們?cè)诨仡欉@段時(shí)期時(shí)，會(huì)把它看成“美國(guó)企業(yè)管理的黃金時(shí)代”。