Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company (IBM Press) by Kevin Maney & Steve Hamm & Jeffrey O'Brien

Author:Kevin Maney & Steve Hamm & Jeffrey O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Pearson Education
Published: 2011-06-09T14:00:00+00:00

Watson’s and IBM’s principles and loyalties were not in question, but the chairman’s judgment had been mistaken. More to the point, IBM was struggling with tensions endemic to the decentralized multinational model. These manifested themselves again decades later in another part of the world. In the 1970s, IBM, along with other major American companies, came under pressure from church groups and universities to stop doing business in South Africa, where the governing regime discriminated against non-whites. Uncertainty over how to respond—to withdraw or seek to promote change by engaging—was evident in remarks made by CEO Frank Cary at IBM’s 1973 annual meeting: “Racial discrimination of any type is contrary to the policies of IBM .... While our presence in some ways does support the government of South Africa, we believe we should not leave, that we are a force for good there, and that we would fail our employees and our stockholders if we left.”168 Four years later, Cary hosted a historic gathering of corporate leaders that authored the so-called Sullivan Principles, a set of guidelines for American companies doing business in South Africa aimed at improving the lot of black South Africans. The document was later revised to call for an end to apartheid. When South Africa’s government failed to respond, IBM was one of 70 companies that left the country. It sold IBM South Africa to a trust set up to benefit South African employees in 1987. Ultimately, partly because of such economic pressures, apartheid crumbled. After resistance leader Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa, IBM gradually bought back 100 percent of the company.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.