ABSTRACT
In the 1960s, the world looked stable to all but the most perceptive oil industry executive. As an oilman (there were few women involved), he would see the dominance of the Seven Sisters, with the oil-producing governments apparently doomed to remain toothless opponents. However, he would increasingly have seen himself as a representative of a new breed of "multinational" executives—for this was the era of the "American Challenge," when people finally became aware of the tremendous surge of multinational direct investment that had taken place since 1945. To most executives, the Anglo-Saxon (predominantly U.S.) multinational phenomenon was a benign force. Certainly, it was difficult to see what could happen to challenge the U.S. domination of the international business scene.
