Silicon Valley: A Cradle of Management Innovation

Here we take a fresh look at Silicon Valley, exploring it as a hub of management innovation, not just new technology. New ways of managing have emerged here due to two main influences: the region’s leadership in information technologies—which both demand and enable rapid change—and the entrepreneurial culture of the region. A brief history of the San Francisco Bay Area shows how new approaches grew out of economic and social developments over many years, from the California Gold Rush through the birth of Stanford University and the early electronics industry, to the modern growth of Silicon Valley. The new approaches included an emphasis on attracting innovative people, an informal and decentralized management style, and relatively flat, non-hierarchical organizational structures that enable fluid response to changing conditions.