Where corporations, public meet
When John Ruggie of the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) challenged a multinational oil company to total the cost of permit delays, shutdowns, slowdowns, and other disruptions caused by conflicts with local residents over two years, the tally came to $6.5 billion, a number large enough to make even a company with $20 billion in annual profits sit up and take notice. The cost of those problems never had been added up in one place, and so had been allowed to fester, Ruggie said. Similarly, a Peruvian mining company lost as much as $20 million a week when its operations were disrupted by local protests. The company handled its problems by bringing in armed security people to violently break up demonstrations. The lesson, Ruggie said in a talk Thursday at HKS’ Belfer Center, is that local dissatisfaction stemming from perceived abuses by major corporations can be expensive. The costs, he said, can be buried...