The growth of the ranks of middle management during the post-War period is what allowed many Western companies to expand. Middle management provided the consistency and control so necessary to the mass production and distribution enterprise. While the resulting bureaucratic hierarchy may no longer fit today's demand for flexibility, wholesale elimination of the people who made growth possible may be shortsighted. Some suggest middle management is a dying breed, but Tom Peter's writes that everyone is becoming a middle manager. [xvi] This outlook is grounded in his customer- and change-dominated view of organization. There will be fewer layers and fewer managers overall, but the strategic roles of middle managers are likely to become more, rather than less, important in the organizations of tomorrow.