Citação: Alfred Chandler e a crítica aos conglomerados
Já indicamos, neste blog, que apesar dos inúmeros méritos historiográficos dos trabalhos de Alfred Chandler, neles encontramos, em não raras ocasiões, uma certa apologia da grande corporação. Chama a atenção, no entanto, como esses elementos apologéticos caminham, lado a lado, com uma dura denúncia de ações especulativas tomadas por parte de gestores dessas mesmas organizações. Para aqueles familiarizados, por exemplo, com os trabalhos do economista marxista François Chesnais, é possível inclusive traçar paralelos entre a sua crítica à financeirização e ao que Chandler denomina como a formação de conglomerados.
Nessa linha, o historiador estadunidense, investigando o declínio da indústria de eletrônicos (consumer electronics) estadunidense, liderada então pela Radio Corporation of America (RCA), aponta que:
“as Robert Sarnoff took command, he was persuaded by André Meyer, a member of the RCA board of directors and senior partner of Lazard Frères and one of the most respected investment bankers of his day, to embark on a second strategy of growth. That was one of product diversification through acquisition of companies whose businesses were only distantly related, if related at all, to the learned technical, functional, and managerial capabilities. In his first annual report as RCA’s CEO, that for 1968, Robert announced: ‘In its formative years RCA’s growth depended primarily on a single product or service... The word that best characterizes the modern RCA is diversity.’ Thus, from the start of his administration Robert Sarnoff embarked on a twofold growth strategy: to challenge IBM’s lead in computers; and to make RCA into a conglomerate”.
Algumas páginas adiante, o autor arremata:
“The curse of the conglomerate finished off RCA, and with it the U.S. consumer electronics industry. In addition, somewhat less blatant unrelated diversification brought down Philco and Sylvania, RCA’s two foremost competitors since the 1920s. These two companies were victims of acquisition by diversifiers” .
Alfred Chandler (2005), Inventing the Electronic Century: the epic story of the consumer electronics and computer industries, Harvard University Press, p. 37-40.