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March-April 1972
18M
J
ACQUES GASTON MAISONROUGE,
president of the IBM World
Trade Corporation, is the proto·
type of the "detribaüzed" man of the
Twenty-first Ceotury. He is a "man
without a country" and pleased to be
so. Though a resident of the U. S.,
he is French by birth and a man of
the world in every sense. IBM
Executive Committee Chairman
Thomas
J.
Watson, Jr. says, "He's
the best of France
and
America."
Maisonrouge heads the multina–
tional arm of IBM which provides
more than one third of IBM's total
sales, and over 50% of IBM's total
earnings. His subsidiary operates in
1l 7
nations and has (as of
197 1)
116,000 employees, 22 plants, 451
sales locations, 260 data
cent~::rs,
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developments labs, and a total of
eight headquarters - 6 area and 2
regional. Its share of the ínter·
national computer market is about
70%.
Maisonrouge speaks four lan–
guages, spends half his time in the
U. S. and the other half in the rest of
the world. His daughters attended
American colleges, but his son
attends a French
l)'cee.
He is a "fam·
ily man"- devoted to his own fam·
ily, his IBM farnily, and his
worid
family.
Maisoorouge is a champion of the
multinational corporation and the
detribalized man. He is an officer in
two other international organizations
- a trustee of the International
Institute of Education and treasurer
of the International Management
Educatioo Foundation. And in his
busy schedule, he finds time to
speak dozens of times annually to
The
PLAIN TRUTH
TheNew
1
1JETRIBALIZED"Man
JACQUES MAISONROUGE
businessmen about thc rnultinationals.
In one sucb speech before the
Rotary Club of New York on Sep–
tember 16,
1971,
he explained "how
international business can further·
world uoderstanding." The follow·
ing are excerpts from his address:
"lntecnational business had been
putting into practice the policies of
furthering world understanding . . .
rather absent-mindedly, so to speak,
simply by doing its 'thing,' by doing
what comes naturally in the pursuit
of its legitimatc business objectives.
"Without excuses, deliberations,
or even a proclaimcd rationale, busi·
ness have been reaching across fron·
tiers, not just to movc more goods as
in the past, but to produce them
internationally as well.
"lt
is commonplace in Germany,
say, to buy a Canadian tractor, whose
axle was made in Mexico, whose
transmission was made in France,
and which was assembled in the
United States....
"And while thc fragmented polit i·
cal world persists in its ancient quar–
rels and rivalries, intcrnational busi·
ness is building new, complex eco·
nomic structures linking and criss–
crossing national economies.
"These new structures inject the
know-how and skills of one nation
into the industrial economies of
others. They create new resources -
industries and jobs - and generate
economic growth unobtrusively, rais–
ing living standards all around.
"The past economic thcories have
always been developed by men of
one country, looking at a national
model with at best some consid–
eration to imports and exports.
Today we have to consider the real
macro-economy, which is global....
"In a multinational cornpany,
natiooal stereotypes are apt to dis–
solve rapidly on personal contact.
We who work for international
enterprises quickly discover that
Latín Americans are
1101
automati–
cally hot tempered . . . all Ger–
mans are
not
cold and aJoof . . .
every Swede is
nol
stubborn ... all
Englishmen are
1101
reserved ... aod
on aod on.
"On the contrary, we find that
intelligence and talent and creativity
have been democralically dispersed
throughout the world.
"loyalty to a specific company is
being replaced by Joyalty to a profes·
sion that knows no política] bound·
aries. As long as it was a man who
could gain the trust and confidence
of both Arnericans aod Europeans, it
did not matter where he carne frorn.
His skill and personality, not his
passport, rnade the differeoce ... and
once that happens, they have becorne
'detribal ized' international career
men ....
"For the time being, though, there
is simply no substitute to thinking in
national framcworks. For there is
still a world in which national inter·
ests overlap and dash head-on.
National interests are very real inter·
ests, and when the chips are clown,
all responsiblc governments act to
protect and safeguard their own
people.
"Jt may be something of an over·
simplification, but I believe that if
you look at thc history of the world
you will find that wars have been
brought about by:
- differences in economic levels
- diffcrences in religious beliefs
- dífferences among races
- differences in ideals
"While: international companies
create an equalíty of technological
knowledge among people by:
- Using common methods, they
equalize managemeot techniques.
- Prornoting common personnel
policies for their employees all over
the world, they tend to equalize stan–
dards of living.
- Furthering rnovement of peo–
ple across bordees, they broaden
their views and make them under·
stand that what is different is not
necessarily wrong.
"If
you look at the real grave
problems of today, it is absolutely
obvious that they can be solved only
on a worldwide basis. No nation can,
alone, suppress hunger, pollution,
control population growth, not even
solvc its own economic problems.
"We have to learn to work
together and overcome the nation–
alism of the past. We have to behave
as world citizens. It is my conviction
that international business, ínter·
national companies, have demon·
strated that this can be done. They
serve as a model for the world of
tomorrow."
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