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Business
charged with having too much influence
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| Professor Mintzberg:
Business exerts excessive political influence |
Québec
City, 16 September 2003
- The state of modern business was the subject of heated debate here today
at the 3rd World Chambers Congress when management expert, Henry Mintzberg
went head to head with former ICC Chairman Richard McCormick.
Professor Mintzberg,
Professor of Management Studies at McGill University, used his address
to the congress to table a list of grievances about the evolution of the
modern business.
He said business exerted
too much influence over political process around the world, and that there
needed to be an overall re-balancing of the forces that influence politics.
"The three strongest
agencies in the world today are the IMF, the WTO and the World Bank,"
he said. "It speaks volumes that they are all economic agencies,
and that they all want countries to open their borders to trade."
He said business the
world over was sufferi
ng from a lack of trust within the broader community.
He attributed the malaise to such phenomena as "heroic leadership"
- where CEOs are expected to run companies on the strength of their personalities
alone - and "the lean and mean organization" - where, despite
living in an age of unprecedented wealth, companies were constantly looking
to make their organizations more streamlined, or "bulimic".
Former ICC Chairman
Richard McCormick responded to Professor Mintzberg's comments, saying
he had confused business with "big-ness".
"There is certainly
skepticism in the community about the idea of big-ness, whether it is
big business, big government or even big universities" he said. "But
it would be wrong to lump every business into the categories the professor
has described.
"A lot of people
in this room represent small businesses who are too busy surviving to
be concerned with this apparent perceived arrogance of business. They
are much more concerned about payrolls and taxes and staying afloat."
Mr McCormick added
that he was a great believer in the WTO and its trade liberalization agenda.
"It is the best
tool we have to ensure that the benefits of globalization are spread as
far and as wide as possible," he said. "I have great faith that,
despite the failure of talks in Cancun at the weekend, this trade round
will eventually be concluded.
"Agricultural
subsidies will come down, gradually, eventually. It is not something which
is going to happen overnight. But it will happen and it is important for
us to stay the course."
World
Chambers Competition
3rd
World Chambers Congress
World
Chambers Federation website
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