The Corporation

Defying oil industry convention and legal precedents, British Petroleum’s Browne declares that there is more to a corporation than profitseeking and that environmental concerns are just as important. Other energy firms resist his green agenda, but soon all have adopted it. Bakan argues that Browne is the only officer among these companies who is genuinely concerned about environmental stewardship and that the big corporations go along with him merely because it makes them look good, which in turn can help their bottom lines, the number one concern of corporations. In fact, even BP itself, under Browne’s leadership, resists calls to cut back on its Alaskan operations, which may damage a local native nation’s well-being, insisting that no harm will befall them.

Anita Roddick starts a boutique soap company that becomes popular; she plows her profits into social causes. When Roddick tries to expand through incorporation, she discovers that her cherished outreach activities are no longer supported by the corporate board, and she gets pushed out. Her situation is a prime example of how a businessperson’s private ideals become stymied by the corporate mandate to make profits.

Barry is an industrial spy who steals corporate secrets on behalf of other corporations. Demand is huge, and he has worked for one-fourth of the Fortune 500 companies. His view of the corporate world is cynical, and he walls off his dubious workday behavior from the rest of his life: “‘The way you live with yourself,’ he says, ‘is to have a very compartmentalized life’” (54). 

Friedman, a world-renowned economist, supports the laissez-faire capitalist ideals of free-market advocates. He believes that it is immoral for a corporation to pursue any other purpose than profit for its shareholders. For him, a socially conscious corporate expenditure is no more legitimate than running away with investors’ money and spending it on fast cars and high living. 

A much-decorated World War I hero, General Butler leads Marine units in overseas actions that protect American interests, especially those of corporations. Butler retires, soured by his experience, and when a group of powerful businessmen approach him to lead a coup against President Roosevelt’s anticorporate administration, Butler leads them on until he can report them to a Congressional committee, thereby foiling the plot. 

Wexler, a top DC lobbyist who once worked for the Bill Clinton administration, delights in her efforts to help major corporations avoid regulation. She says it is “very hard [for a politician] to turn somebody down when they’ve given a hundred thousand dollars to [his or her] campaign. In terms of getting in the door and making your case, it’s obviously easier” (104).