Most significant event/development for business

1. World War II
2. Women in the workplace
3. "Other"
4. Cold War's end
5. Crash of 1929

Second place (tied with "Other") went to "Women in the workplace" , which "broadened the talent base and revolutionized U.S. consumption and society," as one alum commented. Women on the job "diversified the workplace and brought different ways of analyzing business and making decisions," and "more than any other event" the emergence of women in the workplace "has challenged the complacency of established management," others noted. The phenomenon "has changed the way men and women view each other," according to one respondent, and significantly affected "the basic structure of the family," added another.

"Other" ruminations included this reflection on the rise of high technology: "In the past, people saw a need and tried to fill it. More recently, with rapid advances in technology, people are seeing capabilities and trying to retrofit them to needs." Also seen as significant were a host of other issues, among them "entitlements, such as health insurance," "junk bonds and the LBOs of the 1980s and today's mergers, which are both cause and effect of major shifts in the economy," "downsizing," "deregulation," "venture capital," "gene engineering," and "the litigation explosion."

In third place was the "Cold War's end," an event that provoked a range of alumni comment, including "trillions became available throughout the world for nondefense spending," which "for the first time since World War I opened the world to global capitalism and allowed human creativity to shine and let millions have a better life." According to some respondents, the end of the East-West geopolitical confrontation has promoted "a rapid rise in enterprise, with a swing to consumer power over producer power and the attraction of capital from unproductive government uses to free enterprise," all of which has contributed to a "globalization of markets and free-market economies." One alum issued a gloomy warning: "The new 'cold war' is the competition for economic hegemony."

The War that Changed the World

When alumni were asked the "most significant event/development for business" over the last 75 years, the top votegetter among all respondents was World War II, recognized for its sheer sweep and influence over so many areas of business and society. "World War II catalyzed mass production techniques, quantitative analysis methods, women in the workplace, and world trade through the Marshall Plan and Japan's economic renaissance," as one respondent succinctly summed it up.