Trial in public
TO WASH out the sour taste of Guinness, here is another merged company as seen by its chairman: 'We are on trial before the eyes of the world and especially the eyes of our fellow-citizens. We are not merely a body of people carrying on industry to make dividends, we are much more. Brit- ish commercialists and British technicians will be judged from the success we make of this merger.' That was Imperial Chemical Industries, in Sir Alfred Mond's words — recalled for ICI's diamond jubilee by Sir Peter Allen, himself a splendid ICI chair- man (and evergreen steam enthusiast, who has been celebrating his eightieth birthday aboard a special train hauled by the record- breaking Mallard). Today's merger- mongers should ask themselves how they stand, by Mond's tests, and how their work, 60 years hence, will compare with ICI.
Previous page
