The MNCs are real; they are affecting people's daily lives and future plans. For this reason, it is advisable to think and talk about them in human terms rather than in terms of money and power. A better understanding of the role of MNCs as they affect individual lives can be gained by recognizing the quantities of resources consumed by the MNCs in their wealth-creation processes, the number of people who derive a livelihood from participating in the MNCs' activities, and the amount of output they generate, both useful and wasteful.
The presence of an MNC in a country is frequently a necessary condition for the country's economic development, but it is by no means sufficient. By the same token, the absence of an MNC from a country (which can come about as a result of expropriation of existing facilities, voluntary divestment, or a country's making new entries difficult) will not automatically lead to a country's economic and social development through domestic business concerns. France is an excellent case in point. During the Charles de Gaulle era, at the zenith of the period described in Servan-Schreiber's American Challenge, 1 MNCs (primarily U.S.-based MNCs) left France because of the "unfavorable and hostile climate." Having determined that this exodus was not beneficial to the economy, France today is attempting to generate a return of U.S. investments through image advertisements in Business Week, Fortune, and other business media. In one such advertisement, the chairman of DATAR began his invitation with "Dear American Friends." The same method has been used by Sweden, Spain, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Turkey, Egypt, and Zaire.
The post-World War II era has been characterized by a tremendous growth of economic activity all over the globe and a relatively stable political climate. The MNCs have played an important role in this economic activity. As a result, their agents, the people at the top and the bottom of the organizational hierarchy, have gained an unprecedented blend of knowledge about and experience in the intricate process of combining human and physical resources to create marketable products and services. It would be to the benefit of humanity to evaluate this vast storehouse of knowledge and determine what can be used and what can be improved upon.
If the goal of a new world economic order—that is, a more equitable distribution of material wealth—is to be accomplished, a rather complex and sophisticated process of needs assessment and needs fulfillment must be set in motion. It is the premise of this book that international business concerns are a potent and potentially valuable force that must be integrated into this process. Dismantlement, or breakup, of the MNCs is neither feasible nor desirable. The only viable and realistic strategy for transforming the global economy is enhancement of the MNC managers' understanding of their complex role and their responsibility to humanity beyond "bottom line" considerations.
In summary, the vision underlying this book's strategy for transformation of the MNC is a rather optimistic one. The nation-states of the world are assumed to have the goals of establishing world security, increasing world productivity, stabilizing the world populations, sustaining economic growth, creating equitable conditions for development, and promoting world monetary stability. The MNC is viewed as possessing great potential for facilitating the accomplishment of these goals. For this to be possible, two conditions must be satisfied:
- The MNC must be recognized as a full-fledged partner in the design of this new world order. Its equitable participation will minimize the probability of resistance to change and the accompanying backlash that have characterized past attempts to regulate business enterprises at a national and international level.
- The MNC corporate commonwealth must engage in a process of self-assessment in order to bring its philosophies, policies, and operating procedures in line with the idea of an interdependent world of diverse but unified societies.
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