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Richard K. Lester

Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Books

  • Unlocking Energy Innovation
  • Global Taiwan
  • Innovation - The Missing Dimension
  • Making Technology Work
  • The Productive Edge
  • Made By Hong Kong
  • Made in America
  • Radioactive Waste Management and Regulation

The Productive Edge book cover

The Productive Edge

Richard K. Lester, The Productive Edge: How U.S. Industries Are Pointing the Way to a New Era of Economic Growth, W.W. Norton, March 1998.

Recently, significant new productivity gains have been reported in important industries, both old and new. What is it about such industries, and individual firms in those industries, that has enabled them to regain their productive edge? In this book, a leading authority on this crucial issue searches five recent success stories – in automobiles, steel, semiconductors, electric power generation, and cellular communication – for clues to shape a new national strategy for economic growth. Taken together, these reports from the front lines of American industry point to a new agenda for growth, tailored to the volatile, unpredictable conditions that will persist in the economy for the foreseeable future. At the heart of the agenda is a proposal for a "new economic citizenship" – a new view of the rights, responsibilities, and resources that should be accorded to those who will contribute their ideas and labor to the new century.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology