cover image Global Embrace: Corporate Challenges in a Transnational World

Global Embrace: Corporate Challenges in a Transnational World

Henry Wendt. HarperCollins Publishers, $25 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-88730-591-7

A global embrace, the merger of two giant manufacturers of similar products, creates a transnational corporation owned by an international mix of shareholders, which essentially distinguishes the entity from other less permanent global marketing arrangements such as foreign branches, offshore acquisitions, joint ventures or licensing agreements. In 1989, as chairman of SmithKline, Wendt presided over the merger of his U.S. pharmaceutical company with a British counterpart, creating SmithKline Beecham, headquartered in Philadelphia and remaining under his leadership as CEO; in an introduction written in corporatespeak, he outlines the reasons for the venture. Subsequently Wendt deals with the rationale for such mergers as a global imperative for certain types of corporations, and he discusses the demanding analysis preceding a global merger and the environment in which a transnational corporation must govern itself and be regulated by the host country. Although the book is hardly a ``how-to'' manual, managers and planners for international marketing will find Wendt's comments instructive and stimulating. (Feb.)