Review of Nick Robins’ The Corporation that Changed the World

The Corporation that Changed the World
Nick Robins
Published by Orient Longman

As a world famous organisation, East India Company (EIC) pioneered not only the shareholder model of corporate ownership but also a plethora of modern business practices as well as malpractices. Yet, not much is known about its social record as a corporation that would have easily outstripped Wal-Mart in terms of market power, Enron for corruption, and Union Carbide for human devastation. “The Corporation that Changed the World by Nick Robins admirably fills this glaring gap. Throughout the book, the author seeks to examine the meaning of the Company’s legacy for the global economy of the twenty-first century by drawing lessons on how corporate power which is “as much a political as an economic problem”, can be confronted and countered through reform, protest, litigation, regulation, and, above al, through organizational redesign.

Students as well as professionals in the area of Organisational Behaviour in general and International Management in particular must not miss this gripping account of the rise and fall of the world’s most opulent and greatest corporation. The book is suitably adorned with a number of tables, figures, maps, and illustrations.

Dr. J. M. Deo
THE SOCIAL ENGINEER, January 2008