Todd Buchholz

percent in just a few hours," Buchholz said. "WorldCom lost 99 percent of its value in 2002. Was it because its primary product and service were inferior? No, it was because the company failed to consolidate billings despite its frenzied acquisition pace."
      A good corporate example for the new age of hyper-competition is Dell Computer, the economist said. "Michael Dell doesn't even want to touch your computer. All he wants to do is get all of its parts assembled as quickly as possible and immediately shipped to your door. He doesn't want your computer to remain in a Dell warehouse. And all of this started with the design of a building."
      Dell also strategically located its notebook assembly plant right next to the Nashville International Airport in Middle Tennessee -- at the center of the U.S. population base and in the heart of the Mid-South logistics network.
      The other two realities driving the New Economy, Buchholz said, are the "scissors econ omy" and people.
      "The scissors economy wipes out the middleman. For example, 10,000 travel agencies have closed since 1999. The scissors economy stomps on prices and bashes entry barriers to market," he noted. "This opens up more trading partners and more complex money flows around the world."
      The third critical factor -- people -- can be summed up in one word, Buchholz added: education.
      "Without education, what jobs can our children hold? The most important issue facing the United States today is education. Our 12th-graders score below Slovenians on standardized tests. How will our companies compete in the future economy without an educated work force?"
      Buchholz also noted that native-born Americans are slipping behind immigrants in economic competitiveness. The two groups starting the most new businesses in America are immigrant Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans, he said.
      The economist also advised IAMC attendees to keep a close eye on China. Over the next 20 years, the U.S. population will grow by 58 million, but China will grow by 258 million, he said. One real-world impact of that trend is already obvious, Buchholz said. Even white-collar jobs that were once prevalent in America are now being outsourced to China. Among them are tax preparers and radiologists.
      "But that's not necessarily a bad thing," he noted. "Opportunity for prosperity
comes from chaos."