Tuesday, March 07, 2006

The ghost of AT&T strikes back

This week it was announced that AT&T is taking over BellSouth. Now AT&T is really Southwestern Bell, which recently acquired what was left of AT&T. So instead of the old AT&T, plus SNET, plus GTE, plus MCI, we will have AT&T, plus Verizon, plus Quest. All via the "breakup" of AT&T into seven regional Bells plus a long-distance company. Yet they now compete with cable companies and soon others. As technology has advanced the entire competitive set has transformed. So do things change all the time. Sears Roebuck is no longer the threat to the consumer which it was once thought, nor is A&P. Trader Joes is growing faster than most better known chains. McDonnel Douglas, PanAm, Arthur Anderson, all are gone!

In the past year, I have known many people who lasted well under a year in new jobs. The pace of change is accelerating, and we have not realized it yet.

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