Over the past decade the acceleration of manufacturing productivity growth, globalization, the Information Age, the power of institutional investors and governmental regulation have all changed the nature of the plastics industry. While these effects went relatively unnoticed during the bubble economy of the 1990s, they are now being revealed, and they differ dramatically in one geographic region of the world from another. What has caused these changes? Are they what they appear to be? What is the outlook for the next decade? What management strategies offer promise for surviving and growing under these conditions?