Introduction
A time traveler from 1945 visiting 2005 would be flabbergasted to find the massive American manufacturing industry playing second fiddle to the services industry. In 1945, America’s manufacturing might had not only reached its zenith but also gained global notoriety for having won the Second World War. At the same time, the services industry was either fledgling or struggling and was indeed considered as subordinate to manufacturing (Barlett & Steele, 1992) . There would, therefore, not have been any form of superiority dispute between the services sector and the manufacturing sector. The American corporate world was dominated by companies such as General Electric, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and commodities producers such as the Coca-Cola Company. Today, the corporate sector is dominated by companies that were practically unheard of in 1945 including Google, Apple, and Microsoft which are part of the services industry. Indeed so powerful is the services industry today that if it shut down, the entire manufacturing industry would be crippled. Further, the manufacturing industry has continued to make vast investments in the services industry to remain profitable and in some instances as a survival tactic (Blaszczyk & Scranton, 2006) . It is a manifest weakness in the manufacturing industry coupled with technological advancements that have resulted in this corporate coup in the American corporate sector. This research paper evaluates the aforesaid corporate sector coup by seeking to understand the manifest weakness in the manufacturing sector, the impact of technology and the reason for the proliferation of the services sector.
Status of the US Corporate Sector and Private Economy in 1945
At the advent of the 20 th century, the American corporate sector as well as the private commercial organization had grown exponentially and was among the greatest in the world. This growth has its advent in the American industrialization that was principally based on the manufacturing of goods. The USA had initially grown as a major source of raw materials for its colonial masters. Through industrialization, America was able to locally transform these raw materials into finished goods through the process of manufacturing (Barlett & Steele, 1992) . The technology used in the manufacturing processes kept on growing thus enabling the continued expansion of the manufacturing industry. A company such as general electric developed a wide array of manufactured products as technology continued to grow. It would manufacture products as small as a light bulb for a family, a large product such as a jet engine for an airplane manufacturer, and a massive product such as a nuclear reactor for governments. General Motors, Ford Motors, and Chrysler followed a similar trend. Other massive corporations included fossil oil extractors and processors such as Exxon Mobile and Gulf Oil (Fortune, 2005) . At the time, the services industry was only fledging and limited to the hospitality, sales and transport industries. These were clearly seen as subordinate to the manufacturing industry with most of its labor needs being low quality and low wage (David & Dorn, 2013) . Manufacturing companies such as Lockheed, Boeing or General Electric would attract the cream of academia and also offer the best of wages.
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The ‘Cancer’ within the Manufacturing Industry
The rise and rise of the services industry must take credit for overturning the manufacturing industry as the dominant force in the American economy. However, a manifest weakness in the manufacturing industry must also be credited for creating a crisis in this industry and therefore supporting the growth of the services industry. This weakness was an overreliance on human capital. The importance of human capital cannot be overstated in any organization to this very date. However, overreliance in the human capital became the manifest weakness in the continually growing manufacturing sector (David & Dorn, 2013) . These manufacturers not only hired hundreds of thousands of employees but also wholly relied on these employees for most of their production processes. This was however in order but after the Second World War, America placed major emphasis on higher education. The gangs of workers upon whom the traditional manufacturing industry relied upon began showing up with college degrees and a higher demand for wages. They united into unions and created the largest labor union movement in the history of the nation. The labor unions continually developed a lot of clout in the manufacturing industry and manufacturers suddenly found themselves having employment terms dictated to them (David & Dorn, 2013) . The large manufacturing firms were faced with the option of changing their operation procedures or being run down by its own labor force. This desire for change resulted in the release of a vast number of employees who ended up in the services sector, as well as assimilation of the services sector as part of manufacturing as shall be expounded hereinbelow .
The Fledging Services Sector
The very large manufacturing industry together with its very large labor force that was growing gradually richer can be credited for the initial increase in the services sector. More employees who had more money created a greater demand for services. The market for more basic utilities such as food clothing and shelter continued to grow (Barlett & Steele, 1992) . Further, an increased number of people in urban sectors required better and easier ways to purchase commodities, get from one point to the next, treatment when they are sick and even entertainment when they were not working. Further having too much money than can be spent at once increased the numbers of people in need of financial services. In this manner, the manufacturing sector and its workforce helped create the beginning of the massive growth of the services sector after 1945 (Barlett & Steele, 1992) . Labor issues also contributed to the growth of the services sector. The manufacturing industry kept on growing until its production outdid the demand yet employees were becoming more expensive to keep. This led to a massive release of an employee who in need for subsistence turned into the service industry for employment pushing it to grow further.
Increase in Demand, Revenue, and Labor Force
Continued demand for services coupled with the availability of skilled labor led to the rapid expansion of the services industry. Instead of several small service providers spread across the USA as was before 1945, the advent of one large service provider with several branches spread across geographical areas commenced (Blaszczyk & Scranton, 2006) . This resulted in the advent of statewide and national service providers as well as franchising. Companies who could afford expansion began establishing more and more branches as the services sector continued to grow. Organizations that could not afford to establish branches sold their idea to locals to establish similar organizations under the same brand. Some services sectors such as banks flourished through establishing branches while food and kindred sectors flourished through franchises such as MacDonald’s. People needed to travel further, faster and in more comfort, a fact that caused the rapid growth of both the transport and hospitality industry. Large airways began to grow in the USA as did hotel chains. The demand for entertainment also created a higher demand for radio, television, music and film industries (Auletta, 2004) . These are all service-based industries and they began to grow in leaps and bounds from after 1945. Of special mention in the services sector is the healthcare industry. Traditionally, corporate healthcare was mainly limited to the manufacturing of healthcare kindred equipment and pharmaceutical supplies. The industry, however, grew a massive services arm after 1945. Massive private hospitals grew all over the USA some of which combined high-quality medical services with world-class hospitality services. Medical insurance is another services sector that had massive growth within this era. Finally, there is the medical transport industry that has also grown exponentially (Enderwick & Enderwick, 2013) . Gradually, the services sector ceased to merely be secondary to the manufacturing sector albeit it could not directly compete with the manufacturing sector until much later in the 1970s.
Effects of the Advent of the General Purpose Computer
By 1945, computers had been in existence for over a century with their technology being generally refined and developed to meet ever advancing demands. Different computerized systems were developed specializing in different duties. It is however, immediately after the Second World War that the idea of a general purpose computer began to come to fruition. This did not seem like a game-changer for the manufacturing industry. Indeed, it may have seemed like another product to be manufactured which would result in an expansion of the manufacturing industry. It was this invention that would eventually turn the tide on the manufacturing industry and cause it to finally become inferior to the services industry (Blaszczyk & Scranton, 2006) . The continued advancement of the computer industry created two major aspects that were to catapult the services industry into the dominant economic force. The first was the creation of services that would eventually become indispensable to all people. The second was to make the services industry into an integral part of the manufacturing process.
Computers had always been used by large companies and governments as aforesaid but the general computer, brought computing into everyday life. Computers began getting smaller and simpler, thus could be owned by individuals and used in their homes and offices. However, general services computers established goods, whose manufacturing was only part of the process and they would need software packages with this packages, in turn, requiring continuous updates. These computers, however, made erstwhile complex obligations so easy that they continually developed indispensability (Lee et al., 2014) . Smaller computers were gradually developed which made them cheaper and easier to use leading to more people using them.
Indeed, Apple Inc. one of the largest corporations in the world was built purely on the philosophy of miniaturizing computers. Massive computers turned into desktops and by the end of the 20 th century had been reduced into laptops, the palmtops soon after. With computers came ease of communication, more so with the advent of the internet, and this created a major economic force that did not even require any input from the manufacturing industry and was mainly controlled by the services industry (Lee et al., 2014) . In what seemed like reversed roles, the growth of information technology reduced manufacturers to playing a support position of creating hardware with the rest of the obligations falling upon the services industry. Information technology created a massive segment of the services industry that had little input from the manufacturing industry thus further pushing the coup against manufacturers .
The second part of the coup, as driven by computerization was the advent of computers as an indispensable part of the manufacturing process (Lee et al., 2014) . As indicated, the manufacturing companies were having the massive problem of overreliance of employees coupled with a demand for higher wages. This created a need for the creation of manufacturing processes that had a lower reliance on employees, more so at the low skill level where employee numbers were higher. The solution to this problem was automation and with it came the fundamental need for computers. These brought in a new era where manufacturing companies would literally rely on service organizations for their manufacturing processes. This fact led to an exponential growth of the services sector, as opposed to the manufacturing sector.
Advent of Management as a Sector and its Influence on Manufacturing Sector Coup
Computerization may have taken over the practical aspects of manufacturing but it is the advent of contemporary management that literally took over the manufacturing industry and all but made it a segment of the services industry. The economy of scale made manufacturers continuously increase in size after 1945. According to Blaszczyk and Scranton (2006), a company like General Electric had by the advent of the 1980s over 400,000 employees spread across the 5 continents. Its production systems and supply chain and personal issues became so vast that they had to be professionally managed. This led to a dispensation where manufacturing companies could no longer be run by manufacturers. The services industry had to supply them with professional managers to play the role of chief executives, accountants, human resource managers and legal advisers among others (McKenna, 2006; Whitfield & Buur, 2014) .
Further, this organization would also need highly complex information systems due to their massive size and global reach. This resulted in heavy investment in information technology that requires IT experts to maintain and run. Therefore, the companies would not only employ several IT specialized staff but also retain IT companies to manage the IT aspects of manufacturing (Lee et al., 2014) . Marketing, another area that blossomed after 1945 also became overly reliant on IT which caused this section to continually expand. Finally, the advent of cyber security issues galvanized the place of the IT expert even in the manufacturing industry. Therefore, the management of the manufacturing industry players became a preserve of technocrats who in essence belong to the services industry. These include the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Operations Officer, the Chief Finance Officer, the Chief Legal Officer and the Chief Information Officer (Whitfield & Buur, 2014) . By 2005, the coup of the economy by the services industry had been complete.
Transition by the Manufacturing Industry to Adjust to the Coup
Blaszczyk and Scranton (2006) use the example of General Electric to show how traditional manufacturers have been adjusting to the current economic environment that is dominated by the services sector. The example given entails the stratagem employed by John Francis "Jack" Welch, Jr. who was the CEO for General Electric from 1981 to 2001. Welch took over an absolute manufacturer in 1981 but by the time he relinquished power in 2001, over 40% of the company’s revenues were coming from the services sector including television stations, finance, real estate, and airplane leasing services. This metamorphism has been prevalent in several other major traditional manufacturers who have now invested in Finance, insurance, IT startups, transport and even entertainment. By the 1980s, the manufacturing industry began to realize the inevitability for the economic dominance of the services industry and began investing in it. Those investments have continually paid off through the continued growth and profitability of services sector.
Status of the US Corporate Sector and Private Economy in 1945
By 2005, the marketing of products had become more important than the manufacturing thereof. In many manufacturing segments such as the fashion industry, the individual who markets and sells products makes more money per unit than the manufacturer (Kroc, 1968; Caves, 2000) . Further, by 2005, it was impossible to find an absolute manufacturing entity in operation within corporate America. Most of the manufacturing companies had diversified their investments within the services sector and owned large stakes in services companies. However, the services had many national and international brands that were purely in the services sector and flourishing. A majority of these companies were not in existence in 1945 when the era of focus for this research paper began. This includes multinationals such as Microsoft, a powerful player in the global computer industry and Apple which deals with mobile phones.
The transport service industry had also by 2005 grown into one of the largest economic segments in the USA. This includes the massive airline's industry with thousands of local and international flights. The service that uses planes has far outdone the plane manufacturing industry with planes manufactured in the 1960s still being in active commercial service. The service industry that deals in the sale of goods and services such as chain stores had the largest amount of revenue in 2005 a good example being Walmart (Blaszczyk & Scranton, 2006) . Major stores selling all manner of commodities yet not involved in any form of manufacturing form a major segment of the corporate sector. Marketing and advertising had also risen into massive industries taking over television, radio and even print media. The entrainment industry including music and film had grown exponentially with musicians selling over one million pieces of a single product. Some films were also making over a billion dollars in revenues globally. The financial sector in 2005 was one of the areas of the economy that had shown the greatest level of improvement within the era. Finally, through finance, management, and information technology, the manufacturing sector had gradually become the subject of the services sector. The manufacturing sector had also heavily invested in the services sector.
Conclusion
The abovementioned research clearly gives the reason why the time-traveler aforesaid from 1945 to 2005 would be flabbergasted and how it came into being. The grounds for the shock would involve a manufacturing sector that is the subject of the services sector as it would be absolutely crippled if the services sector was removed. As shown above, the manufacturing sector relies on the services sector than much more than supplementary support such as food and janitorial services. The 2005 manufacturing plant was managed by a services sector team who relied on computerized systems and IT. Further, this manufacturing sector is vested and invested in the services sector. Another cause of surprise would be to find out that companies such as Walmart, a group of shops had higher revenues than the behemoths of 1945 such as the Ford Company and general electric. Finally, the creation of an entirely new yet extremely vast sector based on IT would augment the shock. The reasons for these changes begin with wealthier Americans who needed more services thus creating a more stable services sector. It also involves the expansion of academia, which resulted in a more educated workforce in America whom the manufacturing sector could no longer satisfy and thus reverted to the services sector. This resulted in the rapid expansion of the services sector to include branches and franchises. The main game-changer, however, was the advent of computers that not only created a massive new services industry under IT but also took substantial control over manufacturing. This is the process of transition from a manufacturing dominated economy to services dominated economy in America between 1945 and 2005.
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