The Fight For Europe's Future: Digital Innovation Or Resistance

Just over fifty years ago, a French journalist, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, published his book, Le Défi Américain (aka The American Challenge, 1967). It presented the United States and Europe as engaged in a silent economic war. In that war, he wrote, Europe was being completely outclassed on all fronts in dealing with the Third Industrial Revolution (electronics, information technology, and automation). The invading industrial armies of the day--1960s giants such as General Motors and IBM--were becoming dominant in Europe because of stronger and more flexible management techniques, technological tools, and research capacity. The book became an international hit, selling an unprecedented 600,000 copies in France alone.