Saturday, April 22, 2006

The future of European business leadership


As illustrated by Nestlé’s experience with Perrier, running a global business is no easy task. Balancing the interests of a culturally diverse and often fiercely patriotic workforce is just one of the many challenges that await aspiring European leaders.

The founding fathers of the European Union, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, dreamed of creating a community of nations that would become more convergent as the years went by. The result of their vision is the EU, the most far-reaching plan for economic integration ever to be attempted among a group of sovereign countries.

Its founding covenant, the Treaty of Rome (1957), aimed at the establishment of a common market, progressively bringing the economic policies of its members into alignment as it wished “to promote the harmonious growth of economic activity in the Community as a whole, regular and balanced expansion, augmented stability, a more rapidly rising standard of living, and closer relations between the participating states”.

See full Article.