Process Engineering and Industrial Management E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 729

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Process Engineering, the science and art of transforming raw materials and energy into a vast array of commercial materials, was conceived at the end of the 19th Century. Its history in the role of the Process Industries has been quite honorable, and techniques and products have contributed to improve health, welfare and quality of life. Today, industrial enterprises, which are still a major source of wealth, have to deal with new challenges in a global world. They need to reconsider their strategy taking into account environmental constraints, social requirements, profit, competition, and resource depletion. "Systems thinking" is a prerequisite from process development at the lab level to good project management. New manufacturing concepts have to be considered, taking into account LCA, supply chain management, recycling, plant flexibility, continuous development, process intensification and innovation. This book combines experience from academia and industry in the field of industrialization, i.e. in all processes involved in the conversion of research into successful operations. Enterprises are facing major challenges in a world of fierce competition and globalization. Process engineering techniques provide Process Industries with the necessary tools to cope with these issues. The chapters of this book give a new approach to the management of technology, projects and manufacturing. Contents Part 1: The Company as of Today 1. The Industrial Company: its Purpose, History, Context, and its Tomorrow?, Jean-Pierre Dal Pont. 2. The Two Modes of Operation of the Company - Operational and Entrepreneurial, Jean-Pierre Dal Pont. 3. The Strategic Management of the Company: Industrial Aspects, Jean-Pierre Dal Pont. Part 2: Process Development and Industrialization 4. Chemical Engineering and Process Engineering, Jean-Pierre Dal Pont. 5. Foundations of Process Industrialization, Jean-François Joly. 6. The Industrialization Process: Preliminary Projects, Jean-Pierre Dal Pont and Michel Royer. 7. Lifecycle Analysis and Eco-Design: Innovation Tools for Sustainable Industrial Chemistry, Sylvain Caillol. 8. Methods for Design and Evaluation of Sustainable Processes and Industrial Systems, Catherine Azzaro-Pantel. 9. Project Management Techniques: Engineering, Jean-Pierre Dal Pont. Part 3: The Necessary Adaptation of the Company for the Future 10. Japanese Methods, Jean-Pierre Dal Pont. 11. Innovation in Chemical Engineering Industries, Oliver Potier and Mauricio Camargo. 12. The Place of Intensified Processes in the Plant of the Future, Laurent Falk. 13. Change Management, Jean-Pierre Dal Pont. 14. The Plant of the Future, Jean-Pierre Dal Pont.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction: Process Engineering and Industrial Management: Industrial Projects and Management of Change

Acknowledgments

PART 1: The Company as of Today

Chapter 1: The Industrial Company: its Purpose, History, Context, and its Tomorrow?

1.1. Purpose, structure, typology

1.2. A centennial history

1.3. New challenges imposed by globalization and sustainable development

1.4. Our planet

1.5. The company of tomorrow. Some thoughts

1.6. Bibliography

Chapter 2: The Two Modes of Operation of the Company — Operational and Entrepreneurial

2.1. Operational mode

2.2. Entrepreneurial mode, project management — the operational/entrepreneurial conflict

2.3. Bibliography

Chapter 3: The Strategic Management of the Company: Industrial Aspects

3.1. Systemic view of the industrial company

3.2. Strategy and strategic analysis of the company

3.3. Development of the strategic plan: its deliverables

3.4. Technological choices and vocations

3.5. Bibliography

PART 2: Process Development and Industrialization

Chapter 4: Chemical Engineering and Process Engineering

4.1. History of chemical engineering and process engineering

4.2. Process engineering

4.3. The chemical reactor

4.4. Bioreactors

4.5. Transportation and transfers

4.6. Unit operations

4.7. Separation processes: process engineering and the new challenges for life sciences

4.8. Acknowledgments

4.9. Bibliography

Chapter 5: Foundations of Process Industrialization

5.1. Introduction

5.2. The various stages of process development: from research to the foundations of industrialization

5.3. The pre-study (or pre-development process)

5.4. Development stage of the process

5.5. General conclusion

5.6. Bibliography

5.7. List of acronyms

Chapter 6: The Industrialization Process: Preliminary Projects

6.1. Steps of industrialization

6.2. Bases of industrialization or process development

6.3. Feasibility study

6.4. Cost and typical duration of industrialization studies

6.5. Content of an industrialization project — conceptual engineering

6.6. Typical organization of an industrialization project

6.7. Business/industrial interface

6.8. Typology of industrialization projects

6.9. The industrial preliminary projects

6.10. Selection of production sites

6.11. The consideration of sustainability in the preliminary projects

6.12. Tips for conducting preliminary projects

6.13. Modification of the project scope

6.14. Host site

6.15. Reporting

6.16. Bibliography

Chapter 7: Lifecycle Analysis and Eco-Design: Innovation Tools for Sustainable Industrial Chemistry

7.1. Contextual elements

7.2. The chemical industry mobilized against upheavals

7.3. The lifecycle analysis, an eco-design tool — definitions and concepts

7.4. Innovation through eco-design

7.5. Limits of the tool

7.6. Conclusion: the future of eco-design

7.7. Bibliography

Chapter 8: Methods for Design and Evaluation of Sustainable Processes and Industrial Systems

8.1. Introduction

8.2. AIChE and IChemE metrics

8.3. Potential environmental impact index (waste reduction algorithm)

8.4. SPI (Sustainable Process Index)

8.5. Exergy as a thermodynamic base for a sustainable development metrics

8.6. Indicators resulting from a lifecycle assessment

8.7. Process design methods and sustainable systems

8.8. Conclusion

8.9. Bibliography

Chapter 9: Project Management Techniques: Engineering

9.1. Engineer and engineering

9.2. Project organization

9.3. Management tools for industrial projects

9.4. The engineering project: from Process Engineering to the start of the facility

9.5. The amount of investment

9.6. Profitability on investment [DOR 81, MIK 10]

9.7. Conclusion

9.8. Bibliography

PART 3: The Necessary Adaptation of the Company for the Future

Chapter 10: Japanese Methods

10.1. Japan from the Meiji era to now. The origin of the Japanese miracle

10.2. W.E. Deming and Japan

10.3. The Toyoda family — Taiichi Ohno — The Toyota Empire

10.4. Toyotism

10.5. The American response

10.6. Bibliography

Chapter 11: Innovation in Chemical Engineering Industries

11.1. Definition of innovation

11.2. Field of innovation in the chemical engineering industry

11.3. The need for innovation

11.4. Methods for innovation in chemical engineering industry

11.5. Conclusion

11.6. Bibliography

Chapter 12: The Place of Intensified Processes in the Plant of the Future

12.1. Process intensification in the context of sustainable development

12.2. Main principles of intensification

12.3. Connection between intensification and miniaturization

12.4. Applications

12.5. New economic models implied by process intensification

12.6. Conclusion

12.7. Bibliography

Chapter 13: Change Management

13.1. The company: adapt or die

13.2. The company: processes and know-how

13.3. Human aspects of change

13.4. Basic tools for change management

13.5. Changes and improvement of the industrial facility

13.6. Re-engineering, the American way

13.7. Conclusion

13.8. Bibliography

Chapter 14: The Plant of the Future

14.1. Developed countries — companies — industrial firms

14.2. Typology of means of production

14.3. Product and plant design

14.4. Management of production and operations (MPO)

14.5. The IT revolution — IT management

14.6. And the individual?

14.7. Conclusion

14.8. Bibliography

List of Authors

Index

First published 2012 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

ISTE Ltd27-37 St George’s RoadLondon SW19 4EUUKJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030USAwww.iste.co.ukwww.wiley.com

© ISTE Ltd 2012

The rights of Jean-Pierre Dal Pont to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Process engineering and industrial management / edited by Jean-Pierre Dal Pont.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84821-326-5

1. Chemical industry--Management. 2. Chemical engineering. I. Dal Pont, Jean-Pierre.

HD9650.5.C486 2012

660.068--dc23

2011044638

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-84821-326-5

Foreword

Process engineering, the science and art of effectively transforming feedstock materials into commercial products, was born in the 19th Century. Its origins can be found further back in the course of history: fermentations, distillations, macerations, and extractions enabled our remote ancestors to enjoy edible, potable, and pharmaceutically active substances, as mining, grinding, mixing, and smelting produced metals to be worked up into useful products — swords as well as ploughs. But it was only with the quantitative description of chemical science in the 19th Century that the engineering of processes could be put on a rigorous basis. The great chemist, Antoine Lavoisier had shown the way when he formulated the law of conservation of mass in 1789. The subsequent development of thermodynamics initiated by Lazare Carnot and continued by Clausius, Kelvin, Gibbs, and others, gave us the framework for designing efficient processes. As a result, by 1900 the world’s production of basic chemicals like sulphuric acid was measured in millions of tonnes, and a vast range of new products, from dyestuffs to aspirin became available to the general public.

And so our profession has continued to develop, with the new science and technology enabling new processes to make new products, and new requirements stimulating new discoveries and more innovation. In parallel, process engineering itself has developed its own methods, theorems, terminology, and literature, organising and recording the advances made and applied.

The role of the industrial company in the history of process engineering is an honourable one, and we can be proud of the way in which the products we make have contributed to the health, welfare, and quality of life of the world’s population. We have, it is true, suffered some terrible accidents, and we have been slow, in some cases very slow, to recognise the effects of our activities on the environment. But we can also be proud of the contribution of process engineers in introducing better approaches to industrial safety and environmental protection. “Systems thinking” with its imperative to look at the whole problem — the complete lifecycle, the entire supply chain, the integrated plant — is a grand discipline for dealing with complex issues far beyond the limits of the chemical and process industries.

There are many texts dealing with the technologies of our profession, from reactor engineering to process control, but there are surprisingly few which deal with process engineering in the context of an industrial company, as this book does. That context is really important, as Industry has a vital role in solving the problems of excessive reliance on fossil fuels, meeting the challenge of sustainable development, exploiting the opportunities provided by the revolutions in biotechnology and information technology, and harnessing the power of change and innovation — the big issues of our time.

The authors have combined to write an authoritative account of process engineering and the business company, based on their extensive practical experience. It is a tour de force. I commend it to students, teachers, and practitioners alike. Read on!

Richard DARTON

President, European Federation of Chemical Engineering

OBE (Order of the British Empire)

Foreword

This book Process Engineering and Industrial Management, that Jean-Pierre Dal Pont has coordinated and to which he has widely contributed, is undoubtedly one of those books that an honest industrial man must read.

It is in fact the result of the experience of more than 30 years that Jean-Pierre Dal Pont has devoted to industry, in Europe, USA, and Asia Pacific.

For over a century, the industrial company has been the source of almost all the innovations that make our day-to-day life. It has been able to implement the process engineering technologies widely exhibited in this book, organize, and create new businesses beyond its original boundaries.

Currently, it is still the industrial company to which we must turn to face the challenges of the century: to fight hunger, to constantly improve people’s health, to solve energy challenges, to protect the environment, and so on.

Now, the depletion of fossil resources (oil, gas, metals, etc.) compels us to imagine and implement radically new solutions.

The techniques of process engineering in this book by Jean-Pierre Dal Pont, as well as those relating to the project management, to the analysis of life cycle, or to TQM are those which are now used in industry and which enable our factories to remain competitive.

The book also questions the condition of the plant in the future, how it needs to be flexible, ever more environmentally friendly, and integrated into society to contribute to harmonious development.

This manufacturing plant will implement microtechnologies and intensified processes using more and more new techniques for modelization, simulation, and communication.

The book is a source of information and reflection for the students, engineering students, and professionals who have to study, develop the processes, build, and operate industrial tools. It will promote dialog among people in charge of marketing, human relations, finance, and technicians of process engineering whether they are from academia or industry.

The future of our society depends on the necessary reorganization of industry. It is a tribute to this book, that it contributes to the understanding of it.

Jean PELIN

Executive Director of Chemical Industries Association

Introduction

Process Engineering and Industrial Management: Industrial Projects and Management of Change 1

This book is a collection of the experiences of professionals from the academic and industrial worlds.

The book aims to explain what a company is, demonstrate its mechanisms and organization, and explain the processes that are at the root of its evolution. Its purpose is to depict the importance of process engineering in companies, whose mission is the transformation of matter and energy, and to define its contribution to the evolution of society.

This book is intended for students, to assist them in their research projects. By providing the basis for process development in the laboratory, and engineering techniques, it will serve professionals who design production tools, make them work, and improve them.

Lifecycle analysis, process assessment methods, progress techniques and the basics of risk management complement the range of essential tools for the engineer, who was considered to be the honorable man of the 19th Century, and is anxious to assert his role in society.

This book is not meant to be a project management guide or a book dedicated to business strategy for students in business schools.

It is above all a general book, a book of reflection in which the reader can benefit from the basic knowledge scattered across multiple works.

It rests on two essential pillars: process engineering and the company.

The concept of process engineering followed the concept of chemical engineering which originated in the United States during the early 20th Century when the oil industry was in the development stage. It accompanied the extraordinary growth of the chemical industry, in particular, during and after World War II. This concept, developed by the late Jacques Villermaux, Professor at the ENSIC (National School of Chemical Industries, Nancy, France), was based on the fact that chemical engineering techniques can be applied to all process industries, that is to say all industries that can transform matter and energy; pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, paper, cement, the environment, energy, metallurgy, cosmetics industries, and so on.

It received its consecration at the first congress held in Nancy, France in 1987. The GFGP (French Group of Process Engineering) was founded in 1988, and in 1997 became the SFGP (French Process Engineering Society), a learned society whose mission is to promote process engineering.

Manufacturing industry deals with the production of “discrete” goods with defined outlines (automobiles, electronic appliances, construction industry, etc.). Many chemical products of all kind are used in the processes of this industrial sector.

A European car uses 130-190 kg of plastics, silicones, paints (5 kg), oils (4 kg), and glass (90-140 kg).

Process and manufacturing industries have much in common whether it is management, strategic approach, how projects are led, concept of sustainable development, risk management, and so on.

The industrial company, as we presently know it, was shaped during the 18th Century. As early as 1712, blacksmith Thomas Newcomen’s atmospheric steam-engine enabled the use of mines by pumping out water that flooded them frequently. During the 19th Century, the Industrial Revolution expanded rapidly in Britain due to the industrial use of steam.

France, Germany, and the United States followed suit from the mid-19th Century.

Players in the Industrial Revolution raised their capital to move from inventions toward innovations, of which the railways are perhaps the best illustration. They invested by taking risks to create the most diverse machines which enabled them to create wealth. These enormous changes wreaked total havoc on predominantly rural societies as well as on the environment. In Britain, the first industrialized country, it was not until the late 19th Century that the average individual started enjoying the benefits of industrialization.

Extraordinary characters who were active between the 19th and 20th Centuries, such as Edison, Ford, Fayol, Taylor, to name but a few, invented the basics of company management which are still in use today.

The company that we are focusing on is essentially the industrial company which can be distinguished from service companies by the fact they use an industrial tool. That distinguishes them from service companies.

To take an example: an industrial company will use its know-how in process engineering to transform fossil resources and biomass into all sorts of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, transportation means, power generators, and so on, to offer society an increasing number of goods and services that are essential for human well-being.

The company today is still a source of wealth and well-being but may also be a source of harm to both humans and the environment. The company must take itself to task.

It is faced with a situation that is unprecedented in the history of mankind, and subjected to considerable changes. The company, through its innovations, causes societal change at a rate never seen before.

Let us cite some of the most critical challenges faced by our societies:

– the depletion of raw fossil materials with increasing costs due to their location in inhospitable areas or politically unstable countries: oil, copper, lithium, rare earth minerals, and so on;

– developed countries had become accustomed to abundant energy at a low price, which in addition to comfort, which gave us a sense of unprecedented freedom where mobility is the most visible consequence. Those days are gone!

– water scarcity. Water is life! A billion people do not have a sufficient quantity and quality of water. This water imbalance has led to water borne diseases especially in young children, and this may become a source of conflict if planned efforts are not implemented worldwide! 500 million people live in the Brahmaputra basin. Tibet is the water tower of Asia! The White Nile and Blue Nile pass through 10 countries! The Turkish project, called Anatolia of the South-East, includes 22 dams; giving Turkey control of the Tigris and the Euphrates!

– global warming is subject to controversy, but its effects are already manifesting themselves! Examples of global warming include melting glaciers, melting ice packs, vegetation change, rising sea levels, and so on;

– population growth is putting an increasingly strong pressure on the environment and is accentuating a significant discrepancy in wealth between countries. The aging of the population in some of the developed countries such as Japan, Germany, and Italy is another source of imbalance whose effects are already being felt.

The current economic crisis which originated with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 took the world by surprise. It highlighted the complexity and opacity of the banking systems.

Presently, trust has not been restored. The industrialized world hopes that only growth can create wealth and jobs. This requires consumption leading to a loss of raw materials, and increased adverse human impact on the environment. Has not the world returned to a paradoxical, even inconsistent, economic and industrial process?

Globalization has jostled the balance arising from the Europeanization of the world following the conquests of the Portuguese in the 15th and 16th Centuries which was then followed by Spanish, British, French, and German imperialism. Currently, China has emerged as the banker of the United States and the workshop of the world. What a change!

The company, faced with increasingly demanding customers in a world under media scrutiny, where everything goes faster and where competition, especially under the impact of emerging countries, is intensifying, should review its strategy in a timely manner. This strategy can be simply defined by answering the following questions:

– in which markets should we remain, which should we expand, or abandon?

– which technologies should be used, which means of production and distribution should be implemented?

Answers to these questions result in a strategic plan for the company. This plan underpins a portfolio of research projects, investments, and disinvestments of structural changes.

Its implementation requires knowledge of company operations, project management, and the industrialization process. These areas implement process engineering and the engineering of which it is a component.

The company must ensure the smooth running of operations that frees up the profit essential to its survival, and also manage the change resulting from its strategic vision.

Change management is implementing processes that rely on hard techniques and the most advanced social and human sciences; part of the book is devoted to this.

The societies of industrialized countries are based on science and technology.

The IT revolution is not over; the petaflops computer has arrived! Along with a society based on IT, a new forward-looking concept can now be added: a society based on knowledge.

The employee, to face this changing world, will be forced to undergo training throughout his lifetime.

Knowledge management has been made necessary because of the abundance and fragmentation of knowledge generated by the increasing complexity, the proliferation of technology, and by the mobility of required or subjected individuals.

The concept of sustainable development is not the latest media concept in fashion. The company is aware that our present behavior will affect the lives of future generations.

The development of new products and services must be considered. There arises a question about the future, it is the question of what we want to produce: where and how we want to produce it? These questions require the company to reconsider its research, industrialization, production, and distribution processes in a spirit of continuous improvement and innovation.

The reconciliation of the company, customer, and its suppliers will continue. It will also be closer to society and the communities where it operates. In a transparent company, “citizen” is not an empty word. The company will always be judged based on its profit, but this will not be the only criteria.

Man is more than ever at the center of the mechanism! A position he should have never left!

We increasingly ask the question about “circular” economies based on the rational use of raw materials, where their recycling is made easier by launching “green” eco-designed products on to the market.

Will it be otherwise?

A new industry needs to be invented with new processes and new “sustainable” equipment.

This would be a new industrial revolution! Chemistry and process engineering are essential for its deployment! “Chemistry is our future”, said Thomas Alva Edison … That was a century ago!

The future today is tomorrow!

Note to reader

The chapters can be read separately and are grouped into three parts:

– the company today: brief history, description of its structure, and mode of operation;

– process development and industrialization: methods to incorporate the laboratory research into an industrial tool to meet current expectations;

– the need to adapt the company for the future: this last part aims to explore the methods necessary for organizations to define, develop, and improve competitive industrial tools.

1 Introduction written by Jean-Pierre DAL PONT.

Acknowledgments

This book is the result of a long process that started 40 years ago, when my late master, Pierre Le Goff, Professor ENSIC, asked me to return to school for a conference on distillation; he thought that I could bring out the views of a person from the industry!

This liking for contact with the academic research and teaching, and students and much more, process engineering, has never left me.

I am grateful to Jean-Claude Charpentier, whose successful career and dynamism is well known for supporting me from the beginning in this “parallel career” only interrupted by 6 years of expatriation to the United States and 5 years to Asia Pacific and which extends within the SFGP (French Process Engineering Society).

Jacques Villermaux, who vanished too soon and was the founder of GFGP (French Process Engineering Society), which later became SFGP, internationally recognized visionary, encouraged me, on my return from the United States in 1989 to do an industrial, managerial conferences, rather than technical ones.

The aim of this book is to juxtapose the academic point of view, cautiously left to teachers-researchers, and the industrial point of view that I acquired after 7 years of technical research, 10 years in manufacturing, and then working as an industrial manager in the United States, France, and Asia.

I want to thank the following school principals and their deputies for having opened the doors of their schools and for having advised me in my brief but strong interventions with students:

– Michel Roques, founder and director of the ENSGSI of Pau;

– Alain Storck, Michel Dirand, Michael Matlosz, successive directors of the ENSIC;

– Thérèse Gibert and George Santini of ESCOM;

– Renaud Gicquel, Jérôme Gosset, Alain Gaunand, Didier Mayer, director of Energy and Process Engineering department from the Ecole des Mines de Paris and Alain Gaunand. I owe a special thanks to Jérôme Gosset, who gave me a course on the management of change while completing my course on project management.

I extend my warmest thanks to Mr. Louis Faton, CEO of Faton publishers specialized in journals and books of art and history and magazines for young people, which allowed me to reproduce some of my eight articles published by Clartés1 publishers.

I would also like to thank the Encyclopedia “Techniques de l’Ingénieur”, which allowed me to reproduce a few excerpts from my article AG 10 and figures from the article AG 3,300 of M.C. Charrier “Implementing Projects in an Engineering Company”. Readers will find in this Encyclopedia many references to articles published in these editions, a genuine anthology of sciences for the engineer.

I express my gratitude to Michel Royer, friend and former colleague without whom this work could not have been completed, for his contribution to certain chapters, the patient work of compilation of my articles and lectures and bibliography searches and assistance for layout of documents.

This book would not have achieved its goal without the contribution of the co-authors who have provided their scientific components.

Dr. Richard Darton and Jean Pelin, UIC Executive Director, gave me confidence and prefaced the book: in this work I express my gratitude for the honor they have given me.

I also thank Sophie Jullian for supporting the IFP Énergies Nouvelles; Yves Roule, who encouraged me use his expertise in engineering; Jacques Breysse, Philippe Tanguy, and Didier Caudron for their advice; and Jack Legrand, who encouraged me and recommended me to the publisher.

Alexandra Pere-Gigante and Genevieve Roques have helped me in completing this manuscript. My warm thanks to them.

As I have already pointed out, this book is not the work of a specialist but is intended as a book of introduction, thought and, if I may, of passion, striving to provide sources of solutions to the problems that raise questions and concerns in current society.

I owe this passion to all those with whom I have spent my professional life: I thank and dedicate this work to them.

Jean-Pierre DAL PONT

1 These items are only available at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

PART 1

The Company as of Today

Chapter 1

The Industrial Company: its Purpose, History, Context, and its Tomorrow?1

The industrial company, as we know it, dates back almost 100 years. However, the understanding of technical issues, the customer-supplier relationship, and the place of the individual within the company have changed dramatically. At the beginning of this century, the consideration of sustainable development, depletion of fossil materials, and climate change require new approaches where innovation plays a decisive role.

Existing enterprises in liberal countries, or even countries that claim to represent socialist systems such as China, have very common characteristics due to their structure, mode of organization, and operation; these enterprises are based on capitalism that can be defined as a system “based on individual investments to produce marketable goods” [APP 10].

This is the type of company that we will be discussing.

The 18th Century witnessed the birth of the entrepreneur who risked his capital in the hope of achieving profit.

One cannot separate the company from its historical, social, economic, and environmental contexts. It is necessary to go back several centuries to understand the company today; its beginning was slow when compared to the rapid changes that have affected us relentlessly since the beginning of this century.

A flashback to the past will help us to throw light on the future.

1.1. Purpose, structure, typology

The purpose of the industrial company is to satisfy customers by selling them products coming from manufacturing tools, sometimes with services required for their use: after-sale customer service, technical support, possible reclamation after the use of by-products generated by the process if they are chemical products.

In the manufacturing (automotive, electrical equipment, audio visual, etc.) industry, the recycling of all or a part of equipment takes the form of a genuine fully fledged industry, due to the depletion of certain raw materials such as copper, rare earth elements and due to their cost, which keeps on increasing.

It is the existence of manufacturing means that distinguishes the industrial company from service corporations, such as banks, insurance companies, food service companies, and so on. The borderline between these two concepts is not clear cut. The kitchens of a food service company make up an industrial tool, thereby requiring maintenance and energy; this tool can be the source of environmental damage (smells, smoke, waste) which must be controlled using chemical processes.

The industrial company makes increasing use of subcontracting for executing non-strategic tasks, that is tasks which are not a part of the enterprise’s business. If security, cleaning, catering, and so on, can be rightly classified under this category, it is questionable whether the outsourcing of maintenance, instrumentation, inspection, utility production and sometimes, the complete manufacturing of the finished product is safe. There could be loss of control of know-how and project management.

The products marketed by the company originate from its research and development services and engineering and design departments or have been acquired from third-parties via patent or license purchases. The know-how and knowledge accumulated over the years are thus one of the essential characteristics in this type of organization.

At the initial stage of the company, there are generally one or more individuals who are willing to start out — the entrepreneur(s) — with reasons as diverse as the desire to buy their independence, sometimes by alienating themselves, to earn money and notoriety, to develop themselves, and so on.

The company is a human venture.

Industrial enterprises are vastly diverse. Can we compare General Motors, a skilled tradesman working alone or with a partner, an IT multinational, a pharmaceutical company or a building firm with 20 employees? What these enterprises have in common is the act of implementing financial, human, and intellectual means. The intellectual means recovered by the implemented technologies differentiate them from the original input.

1.1.1. The four pillars of the company

Any company is supported by four pillars: economic, financial, human, and legal.

1.1.1.1. The economic pillar: the product/market relationship

The concept of product/market relationship is currently the very basis of the economic concept.

The product is what the company offers on determined markets (automotive, electrical goods, audiovisual, construction, etc.) where it will face competition.

What the customer wants (Figure 1.1) is a product that meets his requirements, this is its functionality.

Figure 1.1.The product seen by the customer

The primary function of an automobile is, but not limited to, transportation. The customer also wants to spend as little as possible while being served quickly and assured of support from the supplier (after-sale customer service, repair, etc.).

Success at the company level (Figure 1.2) is based on another tripod:

– marketing that aims to analyze the markets in order to identify the customer’s requirements;

– research and development (R&D) in charge of designing the product and the engineering (engineering and design department), which must define the industrial tool and have it built;

– production and logistics, whose mission is the creation of the product and making it available to the customer, in other words, the distribution.

Figure 1.2.The product seen by the company

A wobbly tripod is a source of failures and disappointments. A product may be excellent, perfectly respond to demand, but if the plant that manufactures it is unreliable (breakdowns, repeated strikes, etc.), then the customer is tempted to look for another source of supply.

1.1.1.2. The financial pillar

Right from its creation, the company has required stable resources. This cash requirement is covered by the capital, which is provided by the entrepreneur and his associates, if any, and by loans taken mostly from the banks. This is the liability of the company.

The entrepreneur takes a risk that he shares with his shareholders.

He, therefore, has a duty to achieve a given result (profit) to pay for the capital loaned.

The company is the permanent seat of exchanges:

– expenses, caused by the production and distribution; and

– revenues generated by sales. The company must have money at all times: this is the treasury. The initial economic difficulties faced by an company are always at the treasury level. The inability to pay implies the suspension of payment.

1.1.1.3. The human pillar

Employees are considered the first asset of the company. They are the individuals who run the company and make it evolve; they dedicate the largest part of their everyday life to it, often carrying with them a sense of pride.

The company provides a social status: it is a source of development, satisfaction but sometimes also of imbalance, frustration, alienation, and even illness. Work forms an integral part of life; to assert this, all we have to do is listen to what the unemployed have to say. All enterprises state that their greatest capital is human capital, but how many of them practise what they preach? Stress, various occupational illnesses, suicides, and acts of violence are dreadful indicators of deep problems.

1.1.1.4. The legal pillar

The legal form of the company defines the hierarchy within the company and the relationships with third-parties.

The company has the obligation to accept the laws of the countries where it operates, be it only for the quality of the products that it sells there, which must respect some rules and adhere to certain codes. In capitalist economy countries, there are several types of companies: partnerships, joint stock companies, cooperative enterprises, and so on.

Most companies are corporations, whereas the individual is a physical person. Owing to this corporation status, the company has the right to have capital, to sign contracts, buy, sell, use, and so on.

1.1.2. Typology of enterprises

Enterprises can be classified according to several criteria. Besides the legal form that we have just described, enterprises are most often characterized by their size and the nature of their job stream.

1.1.2.1. The size of the company

This is the most important and most accessible criterion. It gives the company its power, its local, national, and international impact, and its ability to influence its field of activity.

The size of the company can be measured by the amount of capital, turnover, and by the number of employees.

French regulation distinguishes 4 categories of enterprises based on their size:

– small office/home office (SOHO) with less than 10 employees;

– small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) with 10-249 employees;

– mid-sized enterprises with 250-4,999 employees;

– large enterprises, which employ more than 5,000 employees.

1.1.2.2. The enterprise’s business

Enterprises, excluding non-financial or insurance companies can be industrial, commercial, agricultural, or service providers.

The company can belong either to the private sector or to the public sector (as with national energy or transport suppliers such as the Private — DOW Chemicals and the Public — NASA). The major technological breakthrough in information technology, especially with the Internet, and the significant interest in genetics have led to the creation of start-up companies. This is the domain of “venture” capital: the shareholder expects significant returns, given the nature of innovative products … which need to be invented.

1.2. A centennial history

One cannot separate the history of today’s company from the historical context of the last 6 centuries. The extraordinary exploration of the planet by men goes hand in hand, over time, with increasing technological discoveries.

The resulting innovations impacted on companies on a permanent basis.

The Age of Enlightenment brought about a revolution of ideas and the reconsideration of age old social systems.

The discovery of unprecedented mineral wealth (gold, silver), the use of unknown crops in Europe (sugarcane, cotton), not to mention silk, spices and furs, transformed companies. This influenced events by endowing some of the nations with powers that were not possessed by conquered countries; supremacy of transportation, where sea transport was practically the only viable mode of travel till the mid-19th Century, supremacy of weapons (rifle against bow, rapid-fire gun against primitive gun).

We must also take into consideration the importance of the quality of administrative and organizational systems and of the management that enables the efficient use of technical and human resources. It remains perplexing that England (excluding Scotland and Wales), populated by only 5-6 million people in the 18th Century, was able to conquer a country like India with 40 times as many people.

1.2.1. The Europeanization of the planet

Man, since time immemorial, has continued to migrate, to go further, driven by a desire for material and the quest for knowledge, or pushed by the need to move to escape famines, enemies, and disasters. Every human group has always tried to enslave its neighbors, to enforce its laws or its ideology on them: the missionaries have always accompanied the warriors.

Globalization as we observe it today has transformed the world into a single stage. In fact, globalization commenced in the late 15th Century with the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, who landed in the Caribbean in 1492. Subsequently, the Portuguese, Spanish, French, English, and Dutch competed for vast territories.

The conquerors of these countries were able to control the Americas, Africa, and Australia; they imposed the culture and language of their native country, for better or worse; they exchanged goods, precious metals, techniques, animals, plants, and so on, as well as diseases with devastating effects. From the Pre-Columbian populations estimated at 90-110 million inhabitants, only 10% would survive the invaders [APP 10].

It is interesting to note that massive wealth acquired far away had very little impact on the lifestyle of some of the colonizing countries. The Spanish hidalgos despised trade, while a French nobleman derogated himself by being involved in trade.

Japan and China remain as special cases; we will analyze them later.

It is from the mid-18th Century that the great discovered territories experienced unprecedented growth, along with expansion of Europeanization. This standardization of the planet proceeded hand-in-hand with the Industrial Revolution and population growth.

Thirty million Europeans emigrated between 1880 and 1914, mainly to the United States, which accommodated the underprivileged and persecuted looking for a world of freedom and opportunity. The colonies provided opportunities to those who were not put off by exile and remoteness.

The need for manpower resulted in slavery. Brazil imported 4 million Africans over 3 centuries to cultivate sugar cane [APP 10]. The Caribbean soon followed suit.

The invention of the Cotton gin (gin, diminutive for engine) in 1793 by Ely Whitney [DOD 84] facilitated the separation of seeds from the staple fibers of American cotton. This simple invention allowed intensive production of cotton in the southern colonies. This resulted in the prosperity of plantation owners and the development of slavery, in turn leading to the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865.

The two world wars, a sad appanage of the first half of the 20th Century, saw a significant disruption of the global order. The beginning of the 21st Century sees globalization in full swing. Blue jeans, Coca-Cola® and other soft drinks have taken hold of the planet. The suit and tie is worn by businessmen from Tokyo to New York. There are no more borders to information and exchange of goods. The American model of consumption imposes itself universally, but for how long?

1.2.2. Evolution of the company over time

In Table 1.1, we have tried to represent the evolution of the Western company from the 19th Century to the present day. They are of course the “state-of-the-art” enterprises of their time. We can note that, even in countries just as developed as France, we find Taylorist enterprises. What about developing countries?

We can define 4 periods which lie between the 19th Century and the end of the 20th Century. Each period corresponds to a vision of the company, which is sometimes strongly influenced by political-economic theories such as capitalism or the various forms of communism, and the weight of great historical events.

The employee is managed very differently in terms of hiring, training, salary, job security, safety, working conditions, and also in terms of hierarchy. He will maintain highly variable relationships with his superiors depending on the time and the type of company where he works.

Breakthroughs in technology (cars, plastics, aviation, information technology, nuclear industry, etc.) will create new industries, new professions, influence the lifestyle of the citizen, and completely change his behavior and way of thinking. The old technologies will disappear; this forms the basis of Schumpeterism (see Box 1.5).

The Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century has rationalized the concentration of men, machines, and capital and given rise to the entrepreneur and the “captain of industry”. The foreman is the keeper of knowledge; and has total control over the worker. There are no engineers as yet.

1.2.3. The Industrial Revolution in England

The term “The Industrial Revolution in England” refers to the transformation of the essentially agricultural and artisan society of the 19th Century into a society that drew most of its wealth from industry based on mining, river, sea and land transport, and of course, on trade. The development of railway transport represented a revolution in itself.

Everyone agrees to the fact that this revolution based on the steam engine was born in England and that it gradually spread to France and Germany. The United States, by virtue of its size, its extreme wealth, the quality of its manpower provided to entrepreneurs through immigration and its liberal system, overtook Europe in the late 19th Century. The 20th Century was undoubtedly “American”, but what will the 21st Century be?

Chinese, perhaps?

Table 1.1.Brief overview on the evolution of the company and its environment (the Western world and Japan)

Japan entered the scene in the late 19th Century and cornered a vast empire in Asia; at the height of its ambitions defeating the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 and conquering what is now Taiwan, Korea, and a part of China. Having been defeated in 1945, Japan, reduced to its historic space, launched itself in to the commercial conquest of the world, which we will come back to later.

The origins of the Industrial Revolution are complicated. Joyce Appleby: [APP 10] questions the fact that this revolution started in England whereas it could have started in France, Germany, or China. These three countries in fact had intelligentsia of the highest order and a certain political stability, along with coal and iron in abundance.

It was actually the combination of a number of elements that enabled England to lead an unprecedented transformation during the first half of the 19th Century; this transformation began with the 18th Century and continued for two centuries. It should be noted that only at the end of the period, that is at the end of the 19th Century, could the British people … finally enjoy the benefits of the machine age. The factors that enabled England to make a mark for itself include, but are not limited to:

– innovations, in large numbers, which entrepreneurs industrialized and perfected for decades to conduct “business” as we would say today: it is impossible to list all of them!

As early as 1712, the Newcomen pump enabled us to extract the water that flooded mines (Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3.Newcomen pump

Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729), a blacksmith by profession, is considered to be “the Father of the Industrial Revolution”. The pump that bears his name was the first “steam engine” to use steam power economically. Steam is injected into the cylinder where the steam lifts a piston. Cold water which is injected into the cylinder condenses the steam, thus creating a vacuum. Under the effect of atmospheric pressure, the piston goes down. The movement of the piston is transmitted to a reciprocating pump by means of a balancing beam. Many coal mines rendered unusable due to flooding were saved from bankruptcy. The first pump was installed in 1712. When Newcomen died, 100 pumps were in use. This technology prevailed for 50 years and was then modernized by James Watt (1736-1819). In 1763, he created a real steam engine by installing, amongst other things, a condenser that was separated from the piston (patent of 1769). The success of his partnership with Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) for the sales of machines, resulting from his inventive talent, is legendary. Boulton, who had a keen marketing sense, enabled Watt to devote himself to his works by freeing him of trade and financial concerns [BIL 96].

The Stephensons invented steam traction and railways. The textile industry was the first industry in the 19th Century: the steam engine enabled the mechanization of this industry.

1.2.3.1. Intellectual openness, entrepreneurship and protection of discoveries

Thinkers reflect on the governance of society, on human nature, on the production of wealth, and on the value of work. Among them, Adam Smith (1723-1790) is considered to be the founder of modern economics. His book in 1776, Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, established theories in relation to work, wages, prices, and taxes. He advocated free trade and non-interventionism of the state in economic affairs; he was opposed to corporations.

More than a century before Taylor, he advocated work specialization in order to increase productivity; his hairpin example is well known.

Inventions have been protected by patents since 1624 [APP 10], thus paying back the efforts and investments of the inventors.

1.2.3.2. An efficient banking system

The Bank of England, founded in 1694 [APP 10], emerged as the most important institution in Europe in the 18th Century. We can recollect that the first modern bank was founded in 1609 by the Dutch and that Bonaparte founded the Banque de France in 1800.

The effectiveness of the English system prompted Napoleon to call England a nation of shopkeepers!

1.2.3.3. The development of agriculture, political stability, population growth

At the beginning of the 17th Century [APP 10], 80% of the population worked on the land. England had 5-6 million people and 1 million horses. Advances in agriculture were very significant and the specter of famine disappeared. The population of England doubled between 1780 and 1830.

In the mid-19th Century, only 40% of the population was working on the land. This percentage is at 3% today. The end of the Napoleonic Wars brought about stability in the country and an unprecedented development of the colonial empire, a natural outlet for manufactured goods, and an important source of raw materials.

1.2.4. Taylorism, Fordism, Fayolism

In the late 19th and early 20th Century, Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol (see Boxes 1.1 and 1.2) provided the traditional company with the form that we know today.

Taylorism [POU 98], still unduly criticized a century after its birth, probably due to the lack of knowledge of the industrial life of its detractors, has revolutionized the life of the factory.

Taylor invented the analysis of the actions needed to accomplish a task: this forms the basis of scientific management.

Translated into modern language, Taylor wanted to:

– improve plant productivity by asking the worker for an “honest day’s work”. But the timing, the visible tip of the iceberg, was unwelcome. The worker felt like a robot;

– improve the manufacturing processes (Taylor was the world’s leading specialist in machining), know the costs (Taylor was an accountant) by the introduction of what was to become analytical accounting;

– reconcile workers and employers by efficiently distributing the profit generated by better management, but the worker is paid for piece work;

– select and train workers (best man to fit a job);

– divide labor between those who design it and those who perform it: drive out empiricism; birth of the modern engineer, engineering and design departments, planning department, and scheduling.

The foreman is restricted to the supervision of laborers.

Henry Ford [LAC 87] adopted Taylorism to the letter (see below). He invented the assembly line in 1913 for the assembly of magnetos which reduced the time required for their production from 15 to 5 minutes.

Detroit emerged as the kingdom of timing, division of labor, cutting waste, and the continuous study of the manufacturing process. Previously, each car was handmade by skilled workers. The division into basic assembly line tasks, which are simple to perform, makes manufacturing by unskilled workers possible. We can recollect Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.

The production increased from 160,000 to 320,000 cars from 1912 to 1914 with the same strength of 14,000 workers.

However, Henry Ford, by reducing the manufacturing costs and hence the selling price, enabled the average American to buy a car; he even received congratulatory letters from “public enemies no. 1” (Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde) for whom the car was an essential “work tool”. Ford’s technology revolutionized the American way of life for the better and perhaps for the worse.

Fifteen million Model Ts were produced between 1908 (the year of launch) and 1927, when the Model “A” replaced the Model “T”. In 1919, half of the cars in American were Model Ts.

Ford also invented vertical integration; he produced steel for manufacturing his automobiles and had his own distribution network. In 1917, the “Rouge” plant was the largest factory in the world: 1,600 m long and 2,500 m wide.

Louis Renault met Taylor and Ford during a trip to the United States in 1911. He wanted to introduce their methods in France.

However, the ill-prepared application of the “Taylor system” resulted in major strikes, including the 44 day strike in 1913. Renault generalized timing after dismissing the union leaders.

Fayolism refers to the management of the company, whereas Taylorism refers to the factory.

Fayolism classifies the set of operations in the company into six main functions: technical, commercial, financial, accounting, administrative, and safety.

H. Fayol defined 14 principles of management from which we will quote:

– the division of labor into specialized tasks;

– the unity of command: the employee has only one manager;

– promotion of the best employees.

Fayol can be considered as the founder of modern management. Administration means anticipating, organizing, and controlling.

Box 1.1.Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)

F.W. Taylor was born near Philadelphia, to a very wealthy Quaker family. He passed the entrance test at Harvard, gave up his studies and became a simple worker in a small pump plant and then joined a steel plant, the Midvale Steel Co., where he worked for 12 years. He became a foreman and then a mechanical engineer by taking correspondence courses. He also held the post of accountant before finishing as chief engineer. Taylor became a specialist in metal working, with many patents, which made him rich and famous. He established himself as a consulting engineer in 1893.

Taylor invented the job analysis technique, whose most obvious manifestation is the timing of tasks. His book, The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), applies Taylorism and forms the basis of scientific management.

He had many supporters: Henry Ford, Louis Renault, Lenin, and so on.

1.2.5. The advent of research

The scientific discoveries of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries had a significant impact on enterprises.

The entrepreneur carried out research to create business. In modern-day terms, he wanted to innovate. Innovation means creating new products, new applications, whereas invention is limited to the acquisition of new knowledge.

Box 1.2.Henri Fayol (1841-1925)

H. Fayol, a French Engineer, graduated from the School of Mines of Saint-Etienne (France). He was the director of the Commentry mine for 30 years. He became the CEO of the Company “Société de Commentry, Fourchambault, Decazeville”, a post from which he retired at the age of 77. Fayol laid the foundations of “administrative theory”. His major work, Administration industrielle et générale, was published in 1916. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of management.

Non other than T.A. Edison better symbolizes the integration of research into the company. Start-ups, already mentioned, can be considered as a system pushed to the extreme: one that speculates on innovations … potential innovations.

No company today can do without research.

1.2.6. The individual in the company

Everything we have just discussed primarily relates to two periods ending around 1937. Until then, the company was a closed system, where man was considered to be completely rational. The salary must be sufficient to meet his needs. “Work and keep quiet” one might say.

Starting from the 1930s, the rise in the level of education, standard of living, access to more information, the growing maturity of the working masses (to use Marxist-Leninist terms) changed this Taylorian perception of the labor world.

A significant number of schools try to understand the behavior of the individual in the company. Elton Mayo (1880-1949) is regarded as the founder of the Human Relations movement and work sociology. The Ecole de Mayo, whose influence was significant around 1940, gave rise to behaviorism.

Box 1.3.Henry Ford (1863-1947) [LAC 87]

H. Ford, the son of a farmer, was the pioneer of the American automotive industry. An eccentric and visionary, he invented the standardization of major parts and assembly line work in his plants at Detroit. He fervently adopted Taylorism: everything was timed. Assembly line work was used for the first time in 1913 to manufacture magnetos. Applied to the manufacture of the famous Model “T”, it reduced the assembly time from 13 hours to one and a half hours. The Model “T” was the first car available to the average American.

Frederick Herzberg, a Professor of psychology, studied the motivations of men at work. Douglas McGregor proposed theories X and Y. According to theory X, man is lazy by nature, whereas theory Y states that he can be motivated if appropriate motivating elements can be found. Psychologists and social psychologists entered the company after the war.

Labor laws became increasingly concerned about protecting the employee. Advances in medicine, reduction of working hours, respect for rest periods, consideration of occupational hazards, the study of risk related to products, and ergonomic studies were some of the many benefits offered to workers in developed countries.

No other country in the world is more “consuming” than the United States, which was considered to be the “master of the world” after World War II. The end of hostilities halted the military-industrial system resulting from the unprecedented transformation of the industry in peacetime, especially in the automotive industry, to manufacture airplanes, tanks, and the most diverse means of transportation. The number of men and women in the armed forces would reduce from 12 million to no more than 1 and a half million in peacetime. Consumption broke all records: cars, refrigerators, televisions, and single-family houses were offered on credit to a population looking for comfort.

Box 1.4.Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) [PRE 89, ISR 98, JOS 92]

T.A. Edison, a news vendor (train boy) at the age of 12, deaf and self-taught, Edison was the author of 1,093 patents. An inventor of the phonograph and the incandescent lamp, among other things, he established companies for manufacturing and distributing electricity. His inventions helped America to transform from an agricultural country in to an industrial country. Visitors can visit his house and laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. His friend Henry Ford relocated his first laboratory from Menlo Park (New Jersey), where he invented the incandescent lamp, to Greenfield Village, the first American theme park opened in 1929 near Detroit.

After World War II, France experienced exceptional growth: France copied the United States.

This is the period of The Glorious Thirty, the 30 years that ended with the first oil crisis in 1973.

There was a gradual change from a manufacturing economy to a free market economy. The customer found everything he desired; the situation was thus far from shortage.

Box 1.5.Joseph A. Schumpeter (1883-1950) [SCH 75]

J. Schumpeter, Austrian Finance Minister in 1919, did not prove himself to be a very shrewd banker. He left for the United States in 1935 where he taught at Harvard.

The book Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, published in 1942, is one of his most remarkable works. He invented the term creative destruction, a process by which new technologies, new products, and new manufacturing and distribution methods throw out the old and force companies to adapt themselves if they want to survive.

Innovation is not only a source of progress but also a crisis factor responsible for economic cycles; an expansion phase is followed by a recession phase.

Like Karl Marx, Schumpeter believed in the fall of capitalism in evolved societies. However, he thought that this would be the best economic system, provided it was implemented by entrepreneurs who took risks.

Advertising incited him to consume. Globalization amplified the phenomenon of competition. A job is no longer guaranteed. The loyalty that bound the employee to his company vanishes slowly. The best people sell themselves to the highest bidder. The company tries to retain them by employee stock ownership plans and partnerships. The company has become an open system.

During this period, the pace of innovation quickened. The last decades of the 20th Century were marked by the IT revolution of which the Internet is a part. This revolution is similar to that of the printing revolution in the 15th Century, which still continues today: its effects have not yet been assessed. The period of certainties is over.

The conquest of space had an unexpected consequence. The photograph of the Earth taken from space showed us that our living space is finite. The concept of company and notion of work are being challenged; resources, including petroleum, are limited. The purpose of the company and work are being challenged.

The energy problem began to increase sharply. Use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes appeared to be an interesting solution in addition to renewable energy sources (hydropower, wind, solar, biomass, tidal, etc.).

1.3. New challenges imposed by globalization and sustainable development

The dawn of the 21st Century brings with it challenges that are unprecedented in the history of mankind. Population growth, the inevitable exhaustion of fossil resources (petroleum, copper, lithium), climatic disturbances, climate change, and disparities in living standards generate fear and questions.

The rich industrialized countries have mostly adopted the same capitalist system, born with the industrial revolution.

1.3.1. Globalization

The company is now faced with the globalization of economies and competition which keeps on growing. There are practically no barriers to trade and communication. In this context, enterprises are forced to define their strategies at a global level. The various financial crises that punctuated the global economy over the last 10 years continue to threaten the global stock markets.

The Asian countries, which represent half of all humanity, market quality products, although they have not completely monopolized entire markets such as the audiovisual or the motorcycle industry. Next to an aging but still powerful Japan, the four dragons (South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and in China) have risen to an international level. China with over 1.3 billion people “has woken up from a slumber” and transformed completely.

“Globalization of the economy implies the globalization of responsibility” (Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the UN).

The concept of sustainable development changes the enterprise’s mission: it places man at the center of the system; this is a new vision. The industrial company or the service company, whether private or public, is thus obliged to implement a governance to cope with the abovementioned notions.

The UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) simply defines governance as — the exercise of economic, political, and administrative authority. It requires: “participation, transparency, and accountability”. To further simplify this, we can say that governance is the organization of decision-making processes, either at the government level or at the company level. There can be no governance without a value system!

1.3.1.1. Communication

Extraordinary improvement of communication and its deployment are undoubtedly the key factor of a system of belonging to the same planet. The Internet, mobile phone, and fax enable individuals who have never seen each other and, in most cases, have little chance of meeting each other, to connect almost instantaneously.

Television brings the world within reach of the poorest; it shows him landscapes that he has never seen and undoubtedly will never see, and gives him the impression of a global village. CNN, Cable News Network, right from its foundation in 1980, has given live reports of events around the world.

1.3.1.2. Transportation, space exploration

The development of aviation, which is just a century old, gave birth to mass tourism. One “does China” after visiting Machu Pichu in Peru. Tourism, which is manna from heaven for poor countries, “desecrates” the sites that were the very soul of the visited country; it leaves behind waste and exacerbates the desires of the underprivileged. The vision of the Earth by satellite gives a sense of finiteness and containment to “Earthlings”. Nothing escapes the space objects and “terrestrial” cameras which constantly monitor us.

1.3.1.3. The internationalization of goods and cash flows

Globalization leads to the commoditization of consumer goods; we buy the latest Japanese or Korean audiovisual product in New York. China has emerged as the global workshop; it knows how to exploit its manpower that costs about one-tenth of what it costs in developed countries to launch industries demanding personnel, such as the textile, electronics and plastics industries, and manufacturing industries in general.