As befits the boss of a company built on some of
the world's most successful brands, Mr. Maucher set about repackaging the ICC
as the "world business organisation" and convincing an indifferent
audience that its message was worth buying.
His first task was to transform the ICC itself.
Founded in 1919, it was a worthy but fusty organisation encrusted with some
200 committees and an old-fashioned image that went with its venerable Paris
headquarters. "You could almost smell the dust", says a Nestle colleague.
Under Mr. Maucher's direction the ICC has been
streamlined, activities merged and chopped and more effort put into formulating
public positions on global issues including the promotion of international rules
on investment, electronic commerce and other areas of interest to business.
Mr. Maucher's personal network of business contacts
was mobilised to recruit more industry leaders to the ranks of the ICC. It now
has more than 7,000 member companies and associations in over 130 countries,
representing many small and medium-sized companies as well as multinationals.
He also brought in Maria Livanos Cattaui from the
Geneva-based World Economic Forum, organisers of the annual Davos symposium,
to be the ICC's secretary-general.
Two years on, as Mr. Maucher prepares to hand over
the ICC presidency to Adnan Kassar, a Lebanese banker, these efforts appear
to have paid off. "We have established the ICC as the preferred dialogue
partner for business with the United Nations and other international institutions",
he says with some satisfaction. "We have convinced them that it is worthwhile
for their work to take account of our views."
In addition to private meetings with top officials,
the ICC has also become more involved in activities of UN and other international
bodies such as the World Trade Organisation.
Over the past year the ICC has organised with the
WTO a symposium on problems with customs ahead of likely negotiations in the
next series of global trade talks. A meeting with WTO ambassadors is planned
for early next year.
The ICC also undertook a joint survey with the
UN Conference on Trade and Development of companies' investment plans in Asia
following the crisis there. And in September it organised a "high-level"
dialogue between industry leaders and top UN officials in Geneva which launched
the so-called Geneva Declaration, the ICC's (and Mr Maucher's) globalisation
manifesto. Kofi Annan, UN secretary general, has been a strong advocate of greater
involvement of business - and other parts of "civil society" - in
the UN's work at all levels.
However, Mr. Maucher, who is full of praise for
the UN chief, says convincing some other senior UN officials that they should
listen to business was far more difficult. It was and is not easy to overcome
the widespread prejudice that business interests are necessarily inimical to
UN goals.
That contrasts with the privileged position in
UN counsels enjoyed by many pressure groups. "A lot of ideas get pushed
in a hidden way so you cannot engage in debate", says Mr. Maucher. "This
is not democratic and
not part of an open society. We should know who finances
these groups and they should present their ideas openly."
Business has just as much right – more, in
his view – to help shape global rules as pressure groups. "The ICC
can speak with a certain moral authority because we're not pushing a particular
business interest", he says. "We're not going to governments and pushing
to sell more Nescafe. If you have good arguments and no hidden agenda you have
a chance of being listened to."