Word: franzen
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...results of this shift can be seen in Magna's order book. Although European and American auto production inched up only slightly during fiscal 1998, the company's sales topped $6 billion--a 19% jump over 1997. "Systems suppliers are getting a bigger piece of the pie," says Anders Franzen, vice president for strategic sourcing at Sweden's Volvo, which is now in the process of being purchased by Ford...
...systems that incorporated side air bags, and safety-minded Volvo got a one-year exclusive deal to use the systems. Going modular helped Volvo offer more flexibility on a limited range of basic models. "With the traditional assembly process, you can usually manufacture just one car per assembly line," Franzen says. "In our case, being one of the smaller players, we don't have the volume to justify setting up multiple assembly lines, so we have to use one line for all the varieties of a model...
...Franzen's gloomy observation has not deflected him or three other gifted writers of his acquaintance: Donald Antrim, Rick Moody and David Foster Wallace, last year's young literary comet. Only two months after Franzen's complaint, Wallace made a connection with Infinite Jest, his 1,000-page opus about an early 21st century North America splintered by drugs, fanatics and a business ethic so venal that even the months of the year have product names...
...Franzen and the others may benefit from Wallace's success. The Twenty-Seventh City, Franzen's deft social-science fiction about a former Bombay police chief who plots to take over St. Louis, Missouri, first published in 1988, was recently released in paperback (Noonday Press; 517 pages...
...Franzen displays a striking talent for turning an implausible plot into a convincing omen. Middle-class flight, a shriveled tax base and the usual urban rumpuses encourage St. Louis authorities to hire S. Jammu, a woman related to Indira Gandhi, to run its police department. Soon Jammu and her imported Indian co-conspirators launch a power grab that includes Orwellian public relations, kidnappings and pet assassinations. Franzen's twisty plot and thriller pace are the sweeteners that mask his caustic commentary on urban decline...