MULTITYPE CORPORATION

Like many U.S. manufacturers saddled with high labor costs, Multitype Corporation, a manufacturer of office equipment, has transferred many of its operations overseas. Now Multitype finds itself the focus of demonstrations in the U.S. because of a host country's domestic policies.

In Multitype's case the host country is a small Caribbean nation, the Swan Island Republic, which consists of one large island and several smaller islets. In the late 1700's the British began colonizing these small, desolate islands and tried to establish plantation agriculture as they had on Barbados and Jamaica. But the ground was too swampy and eventually the plantations were abandoned. The British departed leaving the islands in the hands of the black laborers who had been transported from Africa to work the plantations. The blacks turned to subsistence agriculture, raising barely enough fruits and vegetables to feed themselves.

For over a century, the Swan Islands were a forgotten backwater within the British Empire. Civil servants from Great Britain were used to staff the small administrative office and hospital in the capital town, New Liverpool; and the British willingly carried the expense of maintaining these services. The black Swan Islanders barely managed to scrape by, living a hand-to-mouth existence generation after generation.

The black Swan Islanders were not alone on their island. In the interior of the big island lived about 1000 Carib Indians, a tribe related to the Native Americans. The Caribs were content to live in the forested center of the island, and the blacks were content to live along the shore, so the two groups rarely came into contact with each other. In situations where they did meet, violence was often the result. The Caribs, despite their primitive spears and hatchets, had a tradition of militancy and rebellion against outsiders. The Caribs continued the same lifestyle they had before the European exploration and settlement, living much the same as they had in the centuries before Columbus.

In spite of the islands' poverty and lack of economic development, independence seemed inevitable as other nations pressured Great Britain to dismember its colonial empire. The Swan Islands were not exempt from this pressure. Finally, in 1977, the British flag was lowered in front of Government House in New Liverpool for the last time, and the bright red and green flag of the Swan Island Republic was raised.

John Bailey, the black chief of police under the British, promptly assumed the role of president of the Swan Islands and began to seek ways of improving the economy of the new nation. The soil was too wet for commercial agriculture, and swarms of mosquitos and biting flies made tourism unlikely.

Thus, when Multitype was seeking a location with cheap labor for a new manufacturing plant, the Swan Islands seemed ideal. The government of John Bailey welcomed Multitype enthusiastically, and the impoverished population of New Liverpool flocked to the new factory in search of jobs. For a wage of $5.00 a day (U.S. currency was used in the Swan Islands), Multitype could choose whomever it wanted from the hundreds of eager job seekers. Its local employees, all of them black, spoke English, so communication problems were minimal. And, due to the workers' motivation and enthusiasm, the plant was extremely profitable for Multitype and enabled the firm to maintain its competitive position in the United States.

Back in the United States, Multitype's top management was shocked to find a group of American Indians picketing the company's headquarters one morning, protesting on behalf of the Carib Indians in the Swan Islands. A malaria epidemic was sweeping the Carib community in the interior of the Swan Islands. For some reason, the black population of the Swan Islands seemed immune, but the Carib Indians were not. Drugs for both preventing and treating malaria were available, but the government claimed it didn't have the funds to eradicate the disease among the Caribs. As a result, the Caribs were dying of malaria, and if nothing was done, the small group would be completely wiped out in a few years.

At Multitype's U.S. headquarters, the initial response was to ignore the pickets, but they didn't go away. Day after day for months, employees were greeted by the protesters' placards which read "Multitype--Partner in Genocide," and "Get Out of the Swan Islands." Multitype's top management spent more and more of its time discussing the Swan Island situation, especially when it became apparent that the U.S. demonstrators were hampering Multitype's sales to universities and government agencies.

After doing nothing for two months, Multitype's management decided it would pay for a treatment program among the Swan Island Caribs. The Bailey government in the Swan Islands seemed very cool to the idea and stonewalled Multitype's efforts at every turn. First it declared that the Carib areas were quarantined and therefore off limits--even to medical personnel. When Multitype tried to bring in a team of doctors and nurses anyway, they were arrested at the airport and sent back home on the next plane. It was only then that Multitype's management became aware of the deep, centuries-long animosity between the Swan Island blacks and Caribs and realized what was behind the Swan Island government's stubbornness.

The Swan Island government seemed determined to block any aid effort. Even when Multitype's president, Jean Gardner, made a personal appeal to Bailey and politely reminded him of Multitype's role in the economy, she was curtly told to mind her own business, followed by a lecture from President Bailey on how Americans always like to interfere in the domestic affairs of other nations.

Meanwhile, the U.S. television networks began to give the story a great deal of attention, and the issue even made the covers of the national news magazines. Like it or not, Multitype was in the limelight.

"Look, we've done all we can," Jean Gardner explained at a meeting of her top management. "Bailey has a point. Who are we to tell him how to run his country? How would we feel if a foreign government started telling us how to deal with the American Indians in our own country? We're here to make office equipment and sell it at a profit. Life is unfair; some of the countries we operate in have serious problems. But does that make it our fault?"

"I couldn't agree more," replied the corporate treasurer. "We have to keep this in perspective. The Swan Islands have about 25000 citizens. These Carib Indians make up less than 4 percent of the population. And let's not forget the good we've done in that little country. Five dollars a day is a very good wage, no one pays more! It's a lot to those people, and certainly allows them to enjoy a higher standard of living than they had before."

"You're absolutely right!" agreed Gardner. "These bleeding heart liberals want us to pull out of the Swan Islands entirely. How does that help anybody?"

"That's all well and fine, but what do I tell my customers?" remarked the vice president of sales, who was normally a quiet fellow but now was visibly agitated. "On every sales call, that's all our reps hear about--those dying indians in the Swan Islands. We're losing sales and it's going to get worse. The Massachusetts and Florida school systems are now boycotting our products because of this mess. We have to do something, and we need to do it soon."

Adapted 1998 by R, C, Schwab from "Multitype Corporation: Doing Business in the Caribbean," in Business and Society, 1996, 3rd Edition, by A. B. Carroll, Southwestern College Publishing, 739-740.