The Web of Inclusion

Helgesen (The Female Advantage) here describes a developing ``collegial'' business structure for the information age, one in which the responsibilities and opportunities of all company ranks are flexible and even invite customer participation in product development. This principle of ``inclusion,'' the author shows, enabled Intel, for example, in a marketing first, to promote its brand name and a new microchip component direct to PC consumer/users through the retail advertising of Intel's existing computer-building customers. Other companies featured in this engrossing study of New Age corporate relationships are the Miami Herald (``be completely open with your staff''); Boston's Beth Israel Hospital (info-technology puts power at the hands-on level); Anixter, ``delivering mass-produced goods and services... on a tailorized basis'') and the Nickelodeon cable TV network, which solved a reverse-inclusion cultural problem. Business and technical subjects often entail specialized languages daunting to the general reader, but in this important area of modern communications and work relations, Helgesen has got it exactly right. (May)