Customer Reviews

The Firestone Operations in Liberia (American business abroad)

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In the 1950s and 1960s the National Planning Association sponsored a series of studies about American business abroad. The intention was to identify lessons applicable to other businesses as they developed internationally. Consequently the books largely ignored individual management personalities in order to focus on general themes.

This volume by Wayne Chatfield Taylor, published in 1956 and reissued in 1976, covers Firestone's rubber plantations in Liberia. Firestone originally established the plantations in 1926 and they played a significant role in World War Two as a source of natural rubber. They still operate today.

The book commences with a fairly extensive history of Liberia since it assumes readers, in 1956, are largely ignorant of the country. This is fairly perceptive inasmuch as it identifies the tensions between the ruling classes, largely descended from American blacks who returned to Africa, and the indigenous tribes. It was this conflict that eventually resulted in the civil war (1989-1996) in Liberia.

The description of the Firestone operations concentrates on three subjects: the commitment to genetic research to improve yields, the treatment of local employees and the expatriate life on the American managers. Generally Firestone comes across as, for the period, a reasonably enlightened employer and corporate citizen. Certainly it was much more enlightened than United Fruit in Latin America. It avoided involvement in local politics but it would be incorrect to say it did not get involved with the government since it accounted for almost 40% of the government's revenues.

Clearly this book describes Liberia and American business there at a point in time. Extensive cultural changes have occurred since then but the book is still relevant inasmuch as it benchmarks a stage in that evolution.