The progressive and overwhelming evolutionary transformation that companies of advanced industrialized countries are going through is, perhaps, the main cause of the crisis we have experienced in the latest decade. As a matter of fact, such transformation deeply changed the organizations’ distinguishing features from organizations that process materials to organization that organize ideas.
Thus, differently from the usual crisis, which is regularly followed by boom periods, we faced a structural crisis and those who survived came out deeply changed.
Indeed, it is very difficult that low-value added productions can continue to survive in advanced industrialized countries (and high personnel costs)because they are strongly influenced by the economic competition.
This is the reason why companies unable to refocus on higher value added productions end up surrendering to the economic competition of the emerging countries which are facilitated, more than in the past, not only by low labour costs, but also by cost-effective costs for moving goods or raw materials, as a result of the globalization process.