Still, senior members of the Bush administration say they expect another terrorist strike and, therefore, as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld recently observed, "Business as usual won't do".
Back then, he observes, business leaders were so suspicious of government that they fought the plan, even though it would have reduced the burden on industry.
The eccentric oligarch had permitted the press to observe "business trainings" he was holding on Koh Damlong, some 34 miles off the Cambodian coast.
We interviewed owners, managers, and employees, conducted consumer focus groups, unobtrusively observed businesses and the surrounding environment, and examined any media coverage of each retailer's decision.
Observing their business methods as closely as the ornithology, Kroenke went into the real estate business and made a fortune estimated at $2.6bn.
"He was encouraging the M.B.A. students at Stanford to jump into running their own businesses, instead of observing other businesses," she said.
He had spent a lifetime observing the business of ruling – first within Florence and then across Europe – and he knew only too well that the link between virtue and success was tenuous at best.
Mr Reuben, whose colourful career has been plagued by misunderstandings, tried a few years ago to set the record straight by inviting a veteran Fortune reporter, Richard Behar, to spend time observing the business.
Reinhard Mohn, the former boss who is chairman of the foundation that owns two-thirds of the company, and whose writings are still revered at Bertelsmann, developed the doctrine after observing American business.
