As the next millennium approaches, leading companies are racing to implement fundamental reorganizations of various kinds. Ford is rearranging itself into global "centers of excellence." AT&T is breaking apart.

GM is contemplating a new international organization to coordinate its global resources. Daimler-Benz, Philips, and others are divesting acquisitions they made not too long ago. Meanwhile, corporate mergers are legion – particularly, but not only, in the industries devoted to pharmaceuticals and health care, banking and financial services, telecommunications and utilities, and aerospace and defense.

And the unprecedented wave of reengineering and restructuring that began in the United States continues unabated in Europe and elsewhere.