This report goes a long way towards explaining the economic underpinnings of some of the shifts we've seen in business - the increase in services, personal entrepreneurship and the "person with the laptop". Be sure and check out the linked report from Deloitte for some key points: - U.S. competitive intensity has more than doubled during the last 40 years - While the performance of U.S. firms is deteriorating, at least some of the benefits of the productivity improvements appear to be captured by creative talent, which is experiencing greater growth in total compensation * Customers also appear to be gaining and using power as reflected in increasing customer disloyalty towards brands - The exponentially advancing price/performance capability of computing, storage, and bandwidth is driving an adoption rate for the digital infrastructure that is two to five times faster than previous infrastructures such as electricity and telephone networks - David Lounsbury