Levi Strauss, led by Robert Haas, the founder's great$-$great$-$grand$-$nephew, has increased its sales by $31$ percent $($to more than $$3\mathrm{.}6$ billion$)$ and prof its by more than $50$ percent since $1985.$ The spec tacular results have come about because Levi Strauss changed the way it did business. First, Levi poured tens of millions of dollars into new product development, marketing, and technology. Second, Haas has focused the organi zation on basic product lines, downsized the or ganization by laying off more than four thousand managers, and trimmed the number of products by two$-$thirds. Third, a new computer system helped streamline manufacturing and distribu tion by linking Levi directly to retailers and fabric suppliers. This new system enables customers to order and pay electronically for new inventory Links with suppliers let Levi fine$-$tune the amounts and kinds of fabrics it orders to meet conmmer demand. The goal of the system is to electronically monitor the manufacture of a pair of jeans. When the customer buys jeans in some store that sale is communicated directly to a plant. If the plant's inventory level for that style of jeans is low, an order to manufacture them is automatically placed. Lastly, Levi started to pay attention to what its customers wanted. In just