FT.COM: IBM chief calls for end to colonial companies - by Francesco Guerrera in New York and Richard Waters in San Francisco

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IBM chief calls for end to colonial companies - by Francesco Guerrera in New York and Richard Waters in San Francisco

Sam Palmisano, head of IBM, on Monday called on multinationals to evolve into a new type of corporation if they are to avoid an anti-globalisation backlash that leads to the election of governments hostile to the interests of big business. In a rare public intervention, Big Blue’s chairman and chief executive writes in today’s Financial Times that traditional multinational companies need to abandon their almost colonial approach to operations outside their home country. He cites as examples of this old-style method the way GM, Ford and his own company built factories in Europe and Asia but kept all the research and development in the US. Instead, he argues they need to move towards full global integration of their operations so as to stop the current unease about the forces of globalisation turning into an all-out assault on big business. The danger for multi-nationals that fail to change their thinking is that countries will elect political leaders who impose draconian labour regulations or try to constrain free trade.