Report Outline
Special Focus
Overview
No one ever thought that the Sergeant Pepper generation—the late-1960s agglomeration of long-haired, pot-smoking, anti-war, down-with-big-business children of the middle class—would preside as the leaders of a historic transformation of the American economy. After all these years, only the Beatles' music remains the same. Its youthful audience had to adapt to a rapidly changing world that would turn conventional business wisdom—and opportunity—on its head.
The American economy is breaking into smaller pieces, creating a boom in opportunities for new business ventures. More and more, small businesses provide the products and services that once came from fewer and much larger companies. The people running these new, smaller establishments are changing the face of American enterprise. Women, virtual outcasts from the business world until recently, may own half of all small businesses by the year 2000. And minorities are overcoming social and economic handicaps to claim a larger share of business ownership.
E. Deane Kanaly, who owns a Houston trust management and financial consulting firm bearing his name, says the boom in small business reflects a change in expectations: “We spent 50 years depersonalizing ourselves to get what we wanted in this country. We gave way to the big government, big universities and big business to get a car in every garage and the chicken in every pot. Now we are |
|
