1<br >Project Explosion<br >F o u R M E N S I T Q U I E T L Y in the executive conference room of<br >the ABC Retailers of America awaiting the arrival of the chairman.<br >A slightly bald， middle-aged executive walks into the room， plops<br >his briefcase on the table， and pulls out a yellow pad. There is an<br >extra touch of arrogance in his voice as he begins to speak.<br > "Our expansion strategies were all right for the early sixties， but<br >this is a new era. We need a new strategy， a new plan， a new<br >philosophy."<br > It is the winter of 1976， and business volume is picking up<br >rapidly from the recession. Such strategy meetings are being held<br >in one corporation after another throughout the country to plan<br >for what will prove to be one of the longest periods of uninter-<br >rupted expansion in modern U.S. history--the superboom of the<br >late seventies. Some firms are hesitant because of the close call<br >with financial insolvency in 1975. But ABC is one of the first to<br >switch back into the gung-ho philosophy that predominated before<br >the crunchmand soon most other companies follow the lead.<br > "But， Mr. Chairman，" queries an assistant， "the last plan we<br >， u]<br > .tlattl<br ><br >