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MULTI- (or trans) national corporations (MNCs) have been the whipping boys of political and economic analysts for as long as I can remember. They are generally deemed to be morbidly obsessed with their bottom lines to the extent of being oblivious to considerations of healthy competition, business ethics and social responsibility.

The investment, operations and turnover of not a few of them based in industrial countries are so astronomical in scale and magnitude as to dwarf the gross domestic product of many developing countries. As such, they have invariably excited fear and suspicion rather than admiration and acceptance. All this led to the UN setting up a special watchdog cell, at the insistence of developing country members, to submit periodical reports to the General Assembly on their activities.

A number of tomes are in circulation, not the least in industrial countries themselves, authored by their own prominent economists, giving graphic descriptions of their all-pervasive and overwhelming influence. The latest among them — a book, aptly titled Empires of Profit : Commerce, Conquest and Corporate Responsibility, by Mr Daniel Litvin — differs from all the rest in approaching the phenomenon of MNCs in a refreshingly new angle. Mr Litvin, in a masterly display of scholarship and insight, looks upon them as yet another link in the long chain of organisational innovations to gain control over human, material, financial and technical resources for the purpose of maximising returns.

Within limits, and so long as it does not turn out to be parasitical or predatory, it is quite a legitimate ambition on the part of any enterprise. The trouble arises only when it oversteps bounds of decency and equity, and ends up as a vulgar and paranoidal manifestation of power. An enterprise that does not watch out for signs of skidding to an extreme in this respect will, besides losing its stability and stamina, develop a tendency to self-destruct. Although Mr Litvin does not say so in so many words, with the help of a number of case studies, he demonstrates how MNCs constantly face the danger of over-reaching themselves leading to their disappearance from the scene.

The example of the East India Company that he cites must be particularly evocative and educative for Indian readers. This Company too initially established itself as a plain and simple trading outfit, obsequious before the might of the Mogul Emperors. Slowly it allowed itself to be drawn into the vortex of local politics. In the process, it lost its bearings and moorings and eventually became extinct.

The present-day MNCs too may head for a similar fate if they embroil themselves in matters which are alien to them and begin throwing their weight about on the presumption that one size fits all and there is a universal prescription for all climes and times, regardless of differences in civilisational and cultural heritage, societal ethos and behavioural norms. In short, a dose of humility is what the doctor would order if they are to survive and succeed in these turbulent times.

B.S. Raghavan

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