The Pan-industrial Revolution: How New Manufacturing Titans Will Transform the World

D’Aveni (Hypercompetition), a professor at Tuck Business School, predicts the widespread adoption of 3-D printing and other kinds of “additive manufacturing” in this persuasive, if shallow, business treatise. He describes how these technologies can be connected with online platforms that leverage artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning, and thereby “play a transformative role in practically every field of human endeavor.” Acting as a “business detective,” he sifts through a wide array of industry papers on existing innovations to walk the reader through what he believes will be a new era of industry tycoons he terms the “pan-industrials.” D’Aveni asserts these moguls will leverage these technologies to take advantage of the economies of both scale and scope available, thereby mass-producing a wide range of goods and greatly reducing economic competition. D’Aveni largely neglects the downside of the system he foresees, only glancingly mentioning potential societal ills, such as “the huge political influence that the pan-industrials will command.” However, he lays out his economic case with clarity and intelligence, and the average reader will be left with the urge to go buy stock in 3-D printer companies right away. (Oct.)