Soon we may have jets that skip across the atmosphere and fly from Singapore to New York in less than a hour. And if we ve already cloned sheep, why not clone the best pilots. This brings me to my third point which is that technology will bring dramatic change to the way business is conducted in the future. Just five years ago, only the largest companies had the resources to set up factories overseas and engage in global commerce. Today it s a much different story.
Small firms can use the internet as a cost effective means to make sales anywhere in the world.
And perhaps more importantly, cost effective transportation and delivery systems have developed in large part as result of the satellite technology to the point where even small shipments to multiple locations around the globe are cost effective. The fact that small and medium sized companies or SMEs as they are often called can now engage globally is a significant development. Statistics show that much of the recent growth and innovation in the U.S. economy has been driven by SMEs. From 1992 to 1996, firms with less than 500 employees were responsible for adding 11.8 million jobs to the U.S. economy above those they retired, while larger firms, with more than 500 employees retired 643,000 more jobs than they created. SME s have found niches in markets created by new technology and they have taken advantage of spin-offs from consolidations of larger industries that are consolidating to become more globally competitive.