training the polyvalent manager: Where British Management Training Lags Behind The Rest of EUROPE

When Britain became a member of the EEC in 1973 the impact on managerial practice was neither immediate nor obvious. British multinationals continued to function on a global scale, whilst small to medium‐sized companies were initially disinterested, or deterred by harmonisation legislation affecting their operations. As John Stopford's 1976 study showed, British multinationals' annual increase in direct investment in the six was already running at an average of 37 per cent in the years preceding and following Britain's entry into the EEC (1970–74). Their pattern was well‐established prior to membership. In addition, a 1977 survey of 100 UK public companies indicated the extent to which smaller firms have taken the opportunity over the intervening six years to diversify, developing export markets and establishing foreign subsidiaries: 92 per cent of firms surveyed recorded an average 36 per cent increase in ‘foreign sales as a percentage of total sales’. In some instances, where companies recorded more than a 70 per cent increase in foreign sales over the five‐year period, these interests now outweigh home operation. I ascribe this ‘considerable shift of emphasis outside the UK’ to ‘the pressure to protect markets abroad by local production, and to establish a physical presence in key markets, notably those of the Continent’. Undoubtedly, lack of scope in the British economy has been a strong contributory factor, but coupled with access to new markets in Europe, it has meant a radical change in operating patterns for companies which ten years ago would not have considered Europe.