Winner Take All: How Competitiveness Shapes the Fate of Nations [Hardcover]

Richard Elkus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2008

Over the past thirty years, the United States has lost commanding leads in business after business. We no longer make cameras, TVs, MP3 players, cell phones, or DVD players, and we have become the world’s largest debtor nation. Everyone thinks this is because of cheap labor costs, but in fact Asian leaders have a fundamental and different way of thinking about business. They are playing a different game. If the U.S. wants to regain its competitiveness and preserve its global power, it must play the game as it’s played in the rest of the world. Winner Take All tells us what it takes to be competitive, and how we need to reform our thinking to regain what we have lost. Richard Elkus isn’t afraid to bring a few sacred cows to the slaughter. This is the essential primer for any policy maker, business leader, or general reader interested in knowing how America can regain the economic clout it once had.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"BusinessWeek"
"In his important, well-argued new book, "Winner Take All: How Competitiveness Shapes the Fate of Nations," longtime Silicon Valley executive Richard J. Elkus Jr. demonstrates how, through complacent government and misguided business practices, the U.S. has surrendered its lead in one key market or technology after another, from cameras and video displays to HDTV. As a result, he says, the country has lost its competitive edge - and it will take a new mindset and gutsy investment to get it back...The next President must envision a better future and inspire the nation to make the sacrifices and investments to achieve it. Elkus' book provides a blueprint for getting started."

About the Author

Richard Elkus has been chief executive or on the board of directors of over fifteen different high-technology companies, as well as a board member of the University of California President’s Board of Science and Innovation, Scripps Research Institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Economic Strategy Institute, the American Electronics Association, and many other organizations. This is his first book. He lives in Atherton, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (July 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 046500315X
• ISBN-13: 978-0465003150
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant analysis of a serious issue facing US competitiveness, July 25, 2008

By 

chakranita - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winner Take All: How Competitiveness Shapes the Fate of Nations (Hardcover)

This book, first of all, is a great read. It tells an alarming story regarding the fate of US competitiveness that is the result of errant business decisions that seemed like a good idea at the time because they bolstered short-term profit margins. But in surrendering involvement in key technology markets, Elkus argues, the US has lost its competitive edge. And the cost of getting that edge back is very dear.

Elkus knows what he is talking about. A long-time technology executive, Elkus has witnessed this first hand and has testified eloquently on the subject for many years.

The book is organized according to 10 principles of competitiveness, which one might dub "Elkus's Rules of Competitiveness", and indeed, they could be a proverbial 10 commandments.

This is a serious book executed with a light touch- it is written in a way to be accessible and interesting, told through many personal stories and anecdotes. Anyone with an interest in technology, history, strategy, and global competition and cares about the future of America should pick up this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN US TECH, August 17, 2008

By 

Dylan C. Moore "DCM Capital" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winner Take All: How Competitiveness Shapes the Fate of Nations (Hardcover)

This book is an absolute must read for anyone affiliated with the US technology industry. The author paints a very interesting picture, that becomes more and more clear as you get thru the book - that the US is systematically losing its edge in technology, whether it realizes it not. Whether you are a US tech executive (or any US industry executive), starting your own tech firm, are a policy maker affiliated with the industry, a consultant, or an investment professional, the book is very insightful and a quick read. I think this book should be a required read at every top MBA program in the country. Kudos to the author for hopefully shedding some light on a serious issue facing the US and its future.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Agree with the thesis, needs more of employment impacts, January 1, 2009

By 

R. Rittmaster - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winner Take All: How Competitiveness Shapes the Fate of Nations (Hardcover)

As a professional who has been in the semiconductor and related industries, I agree wholeheartedly with the thesis of the book. We are losing more than "technologies"; we are losing economic viability as a nation. Elkus addresses several facets of this crisis, including the educational aspects: after all, why would one work hard to get through a master's degree in the sciences or engineering if there is no job out there? (to contradict another reviewer's proposition that we no longer have the student talent: if that were the case, then how and why are medical school slots all occupied? that is highly competitive, too - so it shows that American students can and do compete. We have to give them something to compete FOR!).
I would have wanted Mr. Elkus to explore the great tragedy I see in the scenario (first hand): the destruction of what I call "the professional technical middle class". We have worked long and hard to attain our respective expertise(s), only to spend weeks and months on end in Asian factories effectively "downloading" and concentrating all that knowledge and experience as we hand over our jobs. This is true - I and my colleagues have all had to do this. As our economy rebuilds in these challenged times, more policy needs to be built to give technical professionals a path to something other than the unemployment office.