Second Thoughtson GrowthA new generation of owners are building
better, more durable companies bychallenging everything the last
decade taught us about fast growth  If you were to name an
opening day for the last decade's economy, a moment that seemed
to crystallize the business world's dreams and ambitions for the
years to follow, you might choose December 12, 1980. It was the
day Apple Computer went public.  Not that the offering itself
was so dramatic. The shares rose only 33% in the course of
trading, a far cry from the crazy first-day doubling of
Genentech's stock, a couple of months earlier. But who cared?
The drama this time lay in the company, not in the market. Wall
Street was putting its imprimatur on the two kids from
California and, in the process, was making them not just
multimillionaires but symbols of hope, of opportunity, of a new
and rosier future.  Back then, you may remember, optimism was
hard to come by. Inflation was well into double digits. The
ayatollah had just overthrown the shah of