In the last quarter of the last century, conglomerates were all the rage – the bigger the organisation, the better – CEO Owen Green built BTR – British Tyre and Rubber – into a huge business covering engineering, packaging, materials, building products and polymers
He merged Dunlop, Sumitomo rubber industries, Hawker Siddeley aircraft production, Nylex industrial products, Siebe control systems and Baan, a Dutch software group
In the process, the company ‘lost control of its myriad operations’ so, in 1999, it renamed itself Invensys and, ever since, has been divesting – the company now focuses on production and energy management alone
This story reflects what has been happening generally across the corporate world
To be BIG is no longer the target – SMALL is often more competitive – specialisation, speed and service now determine winners, not size
Much the same can be said of the current European Union conglomerate
28 different nations, each with different strengths and weaknesses – each having different histories, cultures, languages and laws – each at different stages of economic development – all have been struggling to work together using one currency, parliament and legal system
But loss of control there has been rearing its head for at least a decade already – witness complaints about the Schengen agreement and the inability of many member nations to devalue their currency e.g. Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy
Now, the UK is the first nation to follow the corporate trend and divest itself from the EU straitjacket – but many others can be expected to follow
Brexit is all about wrestling back control over (n.b. not stopping) UK immigration levels, plus the laws we live by, who we trade with and how
Most Brits are appalled when told what to do by unelected, unaccountable, unknown yet overpaid Brussels eurocrats – and not only do we have to obey them but also pay heavily for the privilege
The EU eurocrats quite openly admit to wanting to become one federal state, even with its own armed forces
That is not what most Brits ever wanted or voted for – the great majority want – indeed, still want – to be members of a European common market, with agreed trading rules, but no more than that
Perhaps that’s the eventual solution for all the EU’s current problems?