A second consideration is that the organizational environment is about to change. When the theory of the firm was devised, the industrial population was taken to be made up of large corporations and institutions with measurable input-output flows and a reasonably predictable. Management could assess future needs in an assured manner even as economists could prophesy the economy. Given the enormous, pent-up demand after world War II, and the mega-consumerism created by the baby boomers, the economy was so vast and so forgiving that virtually any prediction, treatment or meddling would have had little effect.