Multinationals – Good, Bad or Just Ugly?

Large banks and financial institutions in many countries often have brands closely aligned to a nation’s history, culture and economic wellbeing.

In some ways this helps to partly explain the furore created when institutions look to move often non-core business operations offshore – however one angle rarely considered is the impact ‘outsourcing’ has on the recipient countries.

This question came up in a recent event in Scotland attended by CoreData Research UK.

According to statistics, Scotland now has 450 call centres employing a remarkable 4.3% of its workforce – a seemingly high figure.

Given the average call centre wage is £12,721, well below the national average wage, it seems the reputation of call centres only offering ‘McJobs’ is indeed true.

So when the discussion turned to the state of Scottish business today, the topic certainly aroused a range of responses.

At one extreme, one financial services executive present was irked by the question as to whether multinationals bring benefits to the economies they seek to operate out of, believing there is no alternative for any economy looking to compete globally these days to embrace multinationals.

Other pro-multinational views were they can offer good opportunities to local graduates and can bring in talented overseas workers who then share their knowledge.

But the counter-argument was multinational companies can be quick to cut their operation in small countries in a downturn and that they tend to only create low-value jobs anyway.

In Scotland this particular debate is coloured by the country being a popular location for call centres.

Among other reasons, the Scottish accent is seen as friendly and Scottish staff can understand colloquial English expressions better than staff in an Asian call centre.

One entrepreneur at the discussion argued the generation now entering the workforce has a need for instant gratification and call centre jobs fit this need.

After all, “why bother with vocational training or further education when you can pick up a call centre job and start earning straight away?”

But in the long run, such jobs can pall and recruits may regret not investing more time and effort in their careers.

The businessmen and women at the event also pointed out not all multinationals are large corporations.

Scotland’s oil and gas sector has plenty of much smaller companies which operate in several different countries.

Many businesses in smaller countries like Scotland depend heavily on trade overseas, so a multinational element to business is inevitable.

Rather than asking if multinationals are a good thing, perhaps we should be thinking more about what they are contributing and if they are helping workers develop their careers as they would wish?