Colossi
Last week, two colossal companies actually left the country. The first, a top-ranking greek dairy company, moved its headquarters to Luxemburg. The second, a food and beverage industry bearing the most famous brand name in the world, left the Athens Stock Exchange and is getting ready to enter the London Stock Exchange.
Undoubtedly, all companies, especially colossal companies, are not obliged to have a home country nor show any kind of social solidarity. Nevertheless, all people, not just Greeks, insist on considering all colossal companies that originated from and succeeded in a certain country whose citizens are their main shareholders as “national”.
More often than not, the overall behaviour and practice of colossal companies, as well as entire countries and nations, can be understood only if we reduce them to the individual level. In other words, these complex groups of people and interests exhibit the same weaknesses, mistakes, obsessions, unexpected triumphs, successes and dependence on the luck factor as an individual. That’s why colossal companies commit hubris, behave arrogantly and fall. That’s why some of them make a breakthrough despite the difficult financial situation, whereas some others fail.
What the crisis that ensued the fall of Lehman Brothers showed is that, during their darkest hour, the “supranational financial giants” of purely private interests, indifferent to the interests of individual countries no matter which they are, turn for help, just like citizens, to the country they refuse they belong to. In such emergencies, the state plays the role of the rich daddy.
Ironically and rather predictably, when these companies recover, they start all over again – just like kids saved by their parents or citizens spending extravagantly.
I’m not suggesting that the greek reality is similar to the american. Nevertheless, in any country and for every company, escaping from a difficult financial situation that costs dearly and rather unfairly – as they think – cannot be judged by financial, political or moral criteria.
So, the two colossal companies are abandoning Greece just like thousands of middle-class professionals, ranging from 20 to 50 years old, who search for a more financially stable, more secure and more relaxed life in countries where their qualifications and skills will be judged with meritocracy and fairness. Is it the same thing? It is. Entities face life and judge themselves and others according to their size and proportion.
That’s why the withdrawal of the two colossal companies can only be commented upon under a sentimental prism. Just like saying to a rich and powerful guy: “Why don’t you help? Why don’t you save the country? You certainly can”. Depending on your relationship, he would come up with several answers, ranging from “Because I don’t want to” to “I know that my taxes end up in the pockets of unionists, politicians, mayors and a bunch of scum; that’s why the country won’t be saved whether I stay here or not”; and from “Why should I stay? So that you and all the other civil servants can still get paid? Why should I do that? Who are you anyway? Would you do it for me if you were in my shoes?!” to “I can’t afford to stay”.
That’s exactly our reality. The colossal companies are similar to the individual colossi. In front of them, the state – which tries to keep them in the country, representing the common feeling and the interests of the other citizens – is just like you and me in front of an all-powerful tycoon. Can you make him change his mind? Can you threaten him? Even if you start calling him names, you will eventually lose, as was the case with the mammoth lawsuit filed against Liberation and its front-page title “Get lost, you jerk!”, addressing the colossus Bernard Arnault after announcing that he would abandon France and move to Belgium in order to evade the new taxes imposed by Francois Hollande.
Of course, calling names – especially if you can avoid lawsuits – sometimes works, as is the case with Facebook in the USA. Every american media, electronic or printed, had a picture of a young man in their front pages, accompanied with the title: “Is he the most hated man in the USA?” I’m talking about one of the co-founders of Facebook, who, after pocketing large amounts of money out of Facebook’s initial public offering in the New York Stock Exchange, sold his shares before they took a dive and moved his fortune to Singapore, becoming its citizen in order to evade taxes.
That’s probably the reason why the principal founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, still remains in the USA and never sold a single share of his company – which, granted the dive of Facebook’s share, has cost him billions but earned him the trust and sympathy of his compatriots and the people of the entire planet who made his company a colossus thanks to the freedom it gave to a new kind of personal and emotional contact and communication.
This is the only kind of power the weakest man in the world has against the most powerful colossus. Sentimental power.
And this kind of power, when multiplied, becomes the power of the public opinion, the so-called common feeling. Don’t get me wrong though. Not buying the products of the companies that leave is not a solution. Besides, the greek market is too small for them. Yet, there are not many colossal companies that pretend there is nothing wrong when the citizens of the country they consider their home country feel disappointed and betrayed. Because everyone, even colossi – companies or individuals – are basically humans. And especially those humans who are not worried about their financial survival know very well that life is not just about money.
