Time-based competition, which yielded competitive advantage in the mid-1980s, revealed its dark side for many Japanese companies in the early 1990s. In industry after industry, a strategy that was supposed to produce variety ended up producing commodities. Pushing to get a greater number of products out faster, Japanese companies created a plethora of models yet stayed in the same place competitively. Today at least one strong competitor in every Japanese industry is leveraging a powerful combination of time-based competition and customer service. The success of these companies provides at least one crucial managerial lesson: strategy, to be meaningful, must link customer needs with employee capabilities and skills.

A qualitative shift is taking place in the ways companies compete, managers manage, and business is conducted. The information-technology revolution makes knowledge the new competitive resource. But knowledge only flows through the technology; it actually resides in people--in knowledge workers and the organizations they inhabit. In the new economy, then, the job of the manager is to create an environment that allows knowledge workers to learn.

Masayoshi Son, the founder, president, and CEO of SOFTBANK is a good example of a new Japanese-style entrepreneurship that is emerging. Originally a software distribution business, today SOFTBANK has six divisions in different businesses, all related to the personal computer. SOFTBANK also has five wholly owned subsidiaries and participates in five joint ventures.

In this interview, Commissioner Brown describes the Community Patrol Officers Program -- a return to the days of the cop on the beat. This program requires a total change in the way the department is organized and operates. A cornerstone of community policing is empowering the workforce -- in this case, the patrol officers who are the backbone of the department. Brown also wants to involve the police more closely with their customers--the law-abiding citizens of New York's neighborhoods--and let the customers set the department's priorities. Change requires Brown to articulate the department's vision and its values, to alter the recruitment, hiring, training, and reward practices.

As coach, general manager, and now president of the Boston Celtics, Auerbach has followed his own management philosophy based on loyalty, pride, teamwork, and discipline. The lessons he discusses in this interview are applicable to managers everywhere. The manager of a sports franchise encounters the same problems as any manager running an organization. Unions, uncooperative owners, and the difficulties of keeping players disciplined and motivated all play a part in Red Auerbach's job.