Multinational corporations evolveto meet international challenge

Multinational corporations have a direct investment in several countries and run their businesses depending on the choices available anywhere in the world. Well-known U.S.-based multinational firms include Coca-Cola, Eastman Kodak, Warner-Lambert, Pfizer, Anaconda, Goodyear, Ford, IBM, ITT, Corn Products, 3M, National Cash Register, H. J. Heinz, and Gillette. They regularly earn over a third of their total sales or profits abroad.

Many multinational companies are American. But there are also many well-known other companies such as Nestle, Shell (Royal Dutch Shell), Lever Brothers (Unilever), Sony, and Honda. They have well-accepted «foreign» brands not only in Canada, but also around the world. Such Canadian organiza­tions as Alcan, Canron, CIL, Consolidated Bathurst, and Seagrams have a control­ling or complete interest in U.S. firms.

Indeed Canadian-owned firms are far more multinational than most of us real­ize. Some 22 Canadian-controlled firms appear in a recent Fortune magazine list of «500 Largest Non-U.S. Industrial Corporations.» (Another eight Canadian-based but foreign-owned firms — the largest being General Motors of Canada — also appear on that list.)

Foreign firms are beginning to see that it may be attractive to operate in this large—if competitive—market. The Japanese entry into the field of electronic products is well known. The Japanese are now building plants abroad. Sony has had a TV plant in southern California since 1972. And Honda makes cars in Ohio. Kago­me, the leading brand of ketchup in Japan, has even set up a factory in California to produce ketchup for export to consumers back in Japan.

One reason for the movement of some multinational firms into North America is that labor costs in their own countries (including Japan) are rising. Considering the total cost—including transportation costs—it may be more economical to produce products in the United States and Canada.

From an international view, multinational firms do — as a GM manager said — «transcend national boundaries.» They see world market opportunities and locate their production and distribution facilities for greatest effectiveness. This has upset some nationalistic business managers and politicians. But these multinational operations may be hard to stop. They are no longer just exporting or importing. They hire local workers and build local plants. They have business relationships with local business managers and politicians. These are powerful organizations. And they have learned to deal with nationalistic feelings and typical border barriers, treating them simply as uncontrollable variables.

We don’t have one world politically yet, but business is moving in that direction. We may have to develop new kinds of corporations and laws to govern multinational operations. In the future, it will make less and less sense for business and politics to be limited by national boundaries.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14