European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 19, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Reassess ing rhe Silicon Ytley i by Andrew Pollack new York times has the Silicon Valley Ideal outlived it usefulness Silicon Valley has Long been considered the Model of business innovation. A generation of engineers became heroes by abandoning careers at big corporations for the Chance to make a Fortune by building new companies around a risky new technology. Lately however a Small but growing number of influential scholars and business executives Are reassessing that Ideal. In particular they Point to the notable decline of the american semiconductor Industry and argue that the entrepreneur Model has been taken to excess. Rainor than propelling the Economy to new Heights the constant spawning of new companies actually May be sapping America s economic might. In new books in such management periodicals As the Harvard business review and in recent speeches these experts say that the pattern of entrepreneurship widely admired in the High technology industries in which people constantly leave established companies to Start new ones can break up industries into too Many Small companies. These companies do not have the wherewithal to compete against the corporate giants. Moreover the constant exodus saps the strength of the larger companies and discourages them from making Long term investments. Worse still according to this View the smaller companies often have to sell technological secrets for badly needed Cash providing a Way for foreign companies to Purchase the latest technology inexpensively. The most forceful proponent of the reassessment is Charles h. Ferguson a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of technology who studied the decline of the american semiconductor Industry. Making yourself or a Small number of managers Rich is very different from contributing to the Long run growth of an Industry he said. Robert b. Reich professor of political Economy at Harvard University also thinks the nation has put too much store in the myth of the Lone entrepreneur much As it once worshipped the Pioneer and the Lone Cowboy. Instead of a few heroes with big ideas Reich maintains the nation needs More continuous and collective innovation. A similar theme is sounded by Clyde v. Prestowitz jr., a former chief Trade negotiator with Japan in his Book trading places How we lost the Lead to Japan. Can it be that the notion of individualism so sacred to the United states is also its fatal flaw the Basic strength that works against itself to reduce strength he writes. At this Point those attacking entrepreneurialism Are a distinct minority and is is far too Early to Tell whether the reappraisal will grow into a larger movement that could have a meaningful Impact on Public policy. Nevertheless this reappraisal Marks a Sharp departure from the years in which entrepreneurs were lionized. The Young electronics Whiz toiling night and Day in the garage to create a new product and build a new company became an american hero Praise by president Reagan and envied even by the japanese. Envious foreigners paraded through California s Silcon Valley that bastion of entrepreneurs. Now however the nation s semiconductor Industry which is William Gates founder responsible for Silicon and chairman of Valley is reeling from Microsoft corp., and first japanese Competition. Billionaire in the personal Ferguson came to the computer business. Conclusion that the decline was largely brought about by a condition of chronic entrepreneurialism in which the Industry was increasingly fragmented by Start up companies. The one american company that still seems capable of competing across the Board and Matching the japanese in semiconductors is the giant International business machines corp., he notes. The time of entrepreneurship and instability and the Virtues of the Lone Start up Engineer Are virtually Over in this Industry Ferguson said in an interview. He said that while Small companies can bring products to Market quicker than Large ones Many later falter. The implications of the debate Are widespread. The semiconductor Industry was the first that grew in the pattern of corporate defections and Start ups backed by the venture capital. If Ferguson is Correct it could mean that trouble May lie ahead for others that have followed such As the computer and biotechnology industries. Some think this is already happening in the Industry that makes the machinery used to produce semiconductors. Hundreds of american companies Are competing in the Market and Are slowly losing out to the japanese. It is simply unlikely that More than 800 relatively Small manufacturers can survive against 15 or 20 and let the chips fall where they May giants in Japan . Sanders Iii chairman of advanced Micro devices inc., a Chip maker said in a recent speech. Many Industry officials say the Ferguson thesis is. Simplistic. They note that Many significant industries including those involving personal computers and biotechnology were created by entrepreneurs while existing computer and pharmaceutical companies virtually ignored the new technology. And America s three Large automobile companies , have not fared any better against the japanese than the hordes of Small semiconductor companies. There s no ground for the belief that the future will lie in big conglomerates said George Gilder a conservative economist. Gilder noted there Are More japanese companies than american companies making cars an Industry in which Japan has bested the United states which suggests that fragment nation is not necessarily a problem. Also disagreeing with Ferguson is Michael Borrus Deputy director of the Berkeley round table on the International Economy at the University of California. He said we Don t do ibis very Well in this country ism being the major a Case of. I terminal blues to try Hijji. Byre Jubera Cox news services body has lost a Finger yet while working on a vat a video display terminal. But Many of the estimated 15 million americans who work regularly on dts Are worried anyway about the machines possible effects. I be worked for three different places full time and seven different places part time where i sat in front of a screen All Day Long. And All of them were horrible said Edna Lee who worked As a claims examiner and processor for several area insurance companies a Job in which she and As Many As 60 other women worked almost continuously at a vat. Though she found her work interesting Lee said she suffered from severe depression during the time she performed it and believes that the depression was linked in part to the amount of time she spent in front of the vat. She said the depression dissipated once she found different work. She is now an insurance coordinator for an orthopaedic surgeon and works Only intermittently at a vat for about an hour a Day. I Don t know Why women put up with it Lee added of the continuous vat work. Ill never work in another place like that dozens of studies and surveys have been completed during the past decade on in in effects of dts but most of the conclusions Are either isolated and anecdotal like Lees or imprecise enough to remain open to the Reader s interpretation. As a result dts have been determined in various quarters to be either terrific dangerous or High degrees of both. On the one hand for instance dts have been described by some labor unions and workers advocacy groups As the most insidious contributor to what one worker has called the sweat shop of the 80s" the clean Well lighted place lined with winking dts in which Well dressed workers mostly women suffer from maladies that Range from eyestrain and headaches to angina and miscarriages. John Sweeney president of the 850,000-member service employees International Union has even gone so far As to say of the vat s role in the modern workplace the health and safety problems faced by today s office workers Are no less serious than the problems faced by Industrial workers in the 1930s." employers not surprisingly have rarely agreed with that kind of assessment. Instead they most often interpret the role of dts As that of time saving production boosting techno heroes. They believe that Many of the problems workers experience while using dts especially problems relating to eyestrain and muscle tension Are the usual consequences of the kinds of clerical work most often performed on these machines work which was once performed on typewriters with similar consequences. As for those studies that suggest some link Between dts and miscarriages among pregnant women who regularly use them they so far have been scuttled by most employers As Well As the country s medical and Legal communities As either misleading or inconclusive. But the Contra riness that has traditionally been present Between employees and employers Over the effects of dts does finally seem to be softening even in Atlanta where two years ago the business Community quickly and utterly squashed an attempt by a women s workers rights group called 9 to 5 to suggest guidelines for vat use and procurement through a Resolution in City Council. As a group the businesses opposed to the Resolution thought it an unfriendly intrusion of government one that they said would discourage outside businesses from moving to Atlanta while opening the door to lawsuits. But since the defeat of that Resolution according to Tim Ryles administrative assistant with the Southeast District of the communications workers of America local businesses have by and Large been making a Good Faith Effort toward redesigning the workplace. They be shown greater sensitivity toward 1 Ryles added that companies which in the past he considered slow to understand these types of complaints such As at to and Bel South each of which employs about 2,000 vat operators Are More an example is the accommodations that have been made at Georgia Power. When the company decided to redesign its offices several years ago special attention was paid to ergonomics the current buzzword for office design that fits the hardware to the movements and functions of the worker at machines such As dts. Chairs lighting Levels the placement of keyboards and the Angle of terminals were among those things that received particular attention in the new design. Employees were also trained to use the new equipment More effectively and comfortably through pamphlets tapes and slides. Managers were educated about problems such As eyestrain so that appropriate Breaks could be scheduled. And while the company has received no reports of miscarriages it is prepared to accommodate those employees who feel uncomfortable working with a vat. Well handle it on a Case by Case basis said a company spokesman. In the Power plants where there Are chemicals that have had effects on animals we reassign someone if they re concerned. That has not yet been done with anyone working at a vat but we would look at it the same Way if it came right now there s no Clear Cut answer about the effects of Low level radiation from dts on pregnant women he added. But you d have to be a fool to say nothing was there so it s something we do need to be sick and disgruntled employees Cost us and that s a game we can t win he said. So this makes Good business sense As Well As Good employee relations it is Clear however that some employers still need to be pushed toward a better understanding of the needs of their employees who use dts. Many full time vat users Are unskilled women and even those who Are skilled according to one former insurance claims processor Are referred to As grunts in the computer rooms they have Little clout with management. Lee recalled bringing to management the concerns of employees who worked on dts and being made to feel like you re a Little Fly buzzing around and when they wave their arms you re going to go that push can come from several directions. Recently for example legislators in Suffolk county n.y., made Law a list of guidelines for vat use including adjustable equipment and Eye care benefits. There Are no such Laws being considered in Atlanta according to the local chapter of 9 to 5, and Ryles said there is a division within the communications workers Union about whether to seek legislative solutions to vat guidelines or bargain them into their contract. But there s Little doubt that the Suffolk county Law has caught the attention of Many employers. With the thing in new York maybe now Well see some movement said Paul Walker manager of personnel planning and placement at Southern co., which Walker said has tried to keep abreast of needed modifications for its 100 to 200 employees who use a vat full time. It might raise concerns with people that weren t concerned the other impetus is Likely to come from the studies of pregnant women who work on dts who pose possibly the greatest Legal threat to negligent employers. The most recent study was released this month and found a higher rate of miscarriages among Northern California women who used dts More than 20 hours a week. The study did not blame dts for the miscarriages saying there were too Many factors involved to make that claim. In Atlanta the National Institute of occupational safety and health is studying the reproductive outcomes of 4,000 Bel South and at to Telephone operators. The results of that study Are expected next year. I suspect that the new York Law and the new studies of a statistical connection Between dts and miscarriages is going to arouse some interest Ryles said. The Little dam now has a crack in Page 14 the stars and stripes tuesday july 19,1987 vat operators at a Manhattan office handling ticket reservations through Telephone and terminal. The stars and stripes Page 15
