¹ For simplicity, we will refer to the company as Alcan, even though it was formally known as Aluminium Limited until 1966; Campbell, Douglas C., Global Mission: The Story of Alcan, vols. 1–3 (Montréal, 1990), 1: 38.Google Scholar

² For the origins of Alcoa, its original investment in Canada, and the 1928 divestment, see Smith, George David, From Monopoly to Competition: The Transformations of Alcoa, 1888–1986 (Cambridge, Mass., 1988)Google Scholar; and Wallace, Donald H., Market Control in the Aluminum Industry (Cambridge, Mass., 1937), 74–76.Google Scholar

³ This term was originally coined by Rennie, Michael W., in “Born Global,” McKinsey Quarterly 4 (1993): 45–52.Google Scholar

⁴ Mintzberg, Henry, “Crafting Strategy,” in Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations (New York, 1989), 25–42Google Scholar, quote on p. 25. These case studies were reprinted with a new introduction and conclusion in Mintzberg, Henry, ed., Tracking Strategies: Toward a General Theory (Oxford, 2007).Google Scholar

⁵ Mintzberg, , “Crafting Strategy,” 31, 34.Google Scholar

⁶ See, for details, Henry Mintzberg and Waters, James A., “Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent,” Strategic Management Journal 6, no. 3 (1985): 257–72Google Scholar; for a summary, see Mintzberg, , ed., Tracking Strategies, 7–8.Google Scholar

⁷ We are grateful to Nicole Hebert from the Business Information Center at Rio Tinto Al-can in Montreal [hereafter, RTA] for granting us access and helping to identify the relevant documents.

⁸ Called Compass until 2000, it underwent several name changes thereafter, most recently to Our World.

⁹ Most of these are available at http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/hrcorpreports/ (retrieved on 30 July 2009). The missing ones were made available to us by Laura Linard and Christine Riggle from the Historical Collection of the Baker Library at Harvard Business School, whose help is gratefully acknowledged.

¹⁰ E.g., Wallace, Market Control; Peck, Merton J., Competition in the Aluminum Industry, 1945–1958 (Cambridge, Mass., 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Graham, Margaret B. W. and Pruitt, Bettye H., R&D for Industry: A Century of Technical Innovation at Alcoa (Cambridge, 1990)Google Scholar; Smith, From Monopoly to Competition; Hachez-Leroy, Florence, LAluminium Français: L'invention d'un marché, 1911–1983 (Paris, 1999).Google Scholar

¹¹ E.g., Carmine Nappi, “Structural Changes in the International Aluminum Industry: The Situation in Canada,” HEC Montreal, discussion paper, IEA 34–02 (1984); Litvak, Isaiah A. and Maule, Christopher J., “Assessing Industry Concentration: The Case of Aluminum,” Journal of International Business Studies 15, no. 1 (1984): 97–104CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Plourde, Yves, “L'influence de la division des activités d'Alcoa de 1928 sur l'internationalisation d'Alcan et d'Alcoa,” unpublished masters thesis, HEC Montréal, 2007.Google Scholar

¹² Campbell, Global Mission.

¹³ The same is true for Lanthier, Pierre, “Alcan from 1945 to 1975: The Uncertain Road to Maturity,” Cahiers d'histoire de l'aluminium, special issue 1 (2003): 47–72Google Scholar, who relies heavily on Campbell. See also Barham, Bradford, “Strategic Capacity Investments and the Alcoa-Alcan Monopoly, 1888–1945,” in States, Firms, and Raw Materials, ed. Barham, Bradford, Bunker, Stephen G., and O'Hearn, Denis (Madison, 1994), 69–110.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Morel, Paul, Histoire technique de la production de l'aluminium (Grenoble, 1992).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Ibid.

¹⁶ Nappi, , “Structural Changes,” 54.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Chandler, Alfred D. Jr, Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism (Cambridge, Mass., 1990), 122–24Google Scholar; Hachez-Leroy, L'Aluminium Français.

¹⁸ Peck, , Competition in the Aluminum Industry, 120.Google Scholar

¹⁹ OECD, Industrie de l'aluminium: Aspects énergétiques et changements structurels (Paris, 1983), 118.Google Scholar

²⁰ Lewis, Winifred, The Light Metals Industry (London, 1949), 10.Google Scholar

²¹ Chandler, , Scale and Scope, 124.Google Scholar

²² For this and the following observations, see Stocking, George W. and W, Myron W.atkins, “The Aluminum Alliance,” in Cartels in Action: Case Studies in International Business Diplomacy (New York, 1946), 216–73Google Scholar; and Hachez-Leroy, Florence, “Stratégie et cartels internationaux, 1901–1981,” in Industrialisation et sociétés en Europe occidentale de la fin du XIXè siècle à nos jours: L'Âge de l'aluminium, ed. Grinberg, Ivan and Hachez-Leroy, Florence (Paris, 1997), 164–74.Google Scholar

²³ Fear, Jeffrey, “Cartels,” in The Oxford Handbook of Business History, ed. Jones, Geoffrey and Zeitlin, Jonathan (Oxford, 2007), ch. 12Google Scholar; see also Schröter, Harm G., “Cartelization and Decartelization in Europe, 1870–1995: Rise and Decline of an Economic Institution,” Journal of European Economic History 25, no. 1 (1996): 129–53.Google Scholar

²⁴ Stocking, and Watkins, , “The Aluminum Alliance,” 225, 239.Google Scholar

²⁵ Dumez, Hervé and Jeunemaître, Alain, La concurrence en Europe (Paris, 1991).Google Scholar

²⁶ Campbell, , Global Mission, vol. 1, 180.Google Scholar

²⁷ Stocking, and Watkins, , “The Aluminum Alliance,” 255–57Google Scholar; Wallace, , Market Control, 369–70Google Scholar; Smith, , From Monopoly to Competition, 321.Google Scholar

²⁸ Stocking, and Watkins, , “The Aluminum Alliance,” 257–57.Google Scholar See also United States v. Aluminium Co. of America et al, 148 F.2d 416 (2nd Cir. 1945).

²⁹ Smith, , From Monopoly to Competition, 271–73.Google Scholar

³⁰ For this and the following, see Anon., “The Davis Legacy-It's Quite a Different Company,” Compass 23, no. 6 (Sept. 1979): 9–12; Campbell, Duncan C., “Nathanael V. Davis Retires,” Compass 30, no. 2 (1986): 6–11.Google Scholar

³¹ Campbell, Global Mission.

³² So states Wharton professor Howard Perlmutter, based on interviews at Alcan's head office: “Corporate Culture in Transition,” Compass 28, no. 3 (May-June 1984): 9–10.

³³ United States v. Aluminium Co. of America et al. 148 F.2d 416 (2nd Cir. 1945). This opinion is widely shared in the academic literature. See, e.g., Smith, , From Monopoly to Competition, 147Google Scholar; Stocking, and Watkins, , “The Aluminum Alliance,” 256–58.Google Scholar

³⁴ Ibid., 260–66.

³⁵ Aluminium Limited, “European Aluminium/Alumina/Bauxite Companies” [hereafter, European Aluminium], 00140–12, RTA.

³⁶ For the following, see Stocking, and Watkins, , “The Aluminum Alliance,” 248–51.Google Scholar

³⁷ Bonfils, René, “Pechiney en Espagne, 1925–1985,” Cahiers d'histoire de l'aluminium, nos. 38/39 (2007): 77–92.Google Scholar

³⁸ Anon., “Alcan Germany: Rolling with the Times,” Compass 30, no. 4 (1986): 3–9, here 3.

³⁹ Wallace, , Market Control, 71Google Scholar; for more details, see Anon., Mémoire d'Alcan en France, 1912–1992 (Paris, 1992).

⁴⁰ For the former, see the annual report for 1930; for the latter, “European Aluminium.”

⁴¹ Bliss, Michael, Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business (Toronto, 1987), 301, 414–15, 423.Google Scholar

⁴² British Alcan Extrusions Limited, “60 Years at Banbury, 1931–1991,” 00195–20, RTA; Fletcher, L., “History of the Birmingham Works,” 16 Jan. 1947Google Scholar, 00161–08, no. 28, RTA. See also Campbell, , Global Mission, vol. 1, 179–88.Google Scholar

⁴³ See the company's annual report for 1953, and Andrew Perchard, “A Marriage of Mutual Convenience? The British Government and the U.K. Aluminium Industry in the Twentieth Century,” paper presented at the annual conference of the European Business History Association, Bergen, 21–23 Aug. 2008.

⁴⁴ Centre d'Études Industrielles (CEI-Genève), typed case study of Rogerstone West Works Sheet Mill, c.1930–1955, Alcan UK, UGD 347/23/1, University of Glasgow Archives.

⁴⁵ Mintzberg, , ed., Tracking Strategies, 8.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Ibid, and Mintzberg, and Waters, , “Of Strategies,” 267.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Lanthier, “Alcan from 1945 to 1975.”

⁴⁸ Stoffaës, Christian, ed., Entre monopole et concurrence: La régulation de l'énergie en perspective historique (Paris, 1994), 403–41.Google Scholar “Rio Tinto's proposed acquisition of Alcan respects the agreements between Alcan and the Québec government,” press release, 7 Aug. 2007; http://www.mdeie.gouv.qc.ca/index.php?id=328&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=l345&tx_ttnews[backPid]=3i4&cHash=e4ce5697ce, accessed 27 Aug. 2009.

⁴⁹ Nappi, , “Structural Changes,” 9.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Lanthier, , “Alcan from 1945 to 1975,” 59–61.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Anon., “Foreign Trade: Red Offensive,” Time, Mar. 1958; “Metals: Cut to Compete,” Time, Apr. 1958.

⁵² Hatch, Stephen and Fores, Michael, “The Struggle for British Aluminium,” Political Quarterly 31, no. 4 (Oct. 1960): 477–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Cailluet, Ludovic, “The British Aluminium Industry, 1945–8OS: Chronicles of a Death Foretold?” Accounting, Business and Financial History 11, no. 1 (2001): 79–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵³ Anon., “Kaiser Acquires Interest in U.K. Firm,” Compass 4, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1960): 7. The origins of James Booth go back to a small Birmingham-based rolling and extrusion company, which Delta Metals acquired in 1957; see Anon., “A New Market Leader in Alcan Booth,” Compass 14, no. 5 (June 1970): 3–6, here 4–5.

⁵⁴ See Compass 11, no. 10 (Dec. 1967), entirely dedicated to the reorganization.

⁵⁵ Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration, Alcan Aluminium Limited: A Case Study, Study no. 13 (1977): 109–10.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Anon., “Reorganization in Europe,” Compass 13, no. 10 (Dec. 1969): 3.

⁵⁷ Anon., “Aluminium Limited Purchases Belgian Plant,” Compass 6, no. 1 (Jan. 1962): 13.

⁵⁸ Anon., “Alcanac Now Fully-Owned,” Compass 16, no. 6 (June 1972): 19.

⁵⁹ Anon., “New Company in France,” Compass 22, no. 5 (Sept.-Oct. 1978): 20; Campbell, , Global Mission, vol. 2, 504–6.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Anon., “Technal: A Success Story to be Continued,” Compass 22, no. 6 (Nov.-Dec. 1978): 15–16; Anon., “The Technal Spirit,” Compass 29, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1985): 13–14.

⁶¹ Anon., “Uphusen: Another Doorway to ECM,” Compass 6, no. 9 (Oct. 1962): 8–9.

⁶² Anon., “Operations Begin at Norf,” Compass 12, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1968): 19; Anon., “Alcan Germany: Rolling with the Times,” Compass 30, no. 4 (1986): 3–9, here 6.

⁶³ “Aluminium Limited in Norway,” Apr. 1961, 00038–09, RTA.

⁶⁴ Anon., “Major Move in Norway,” Compass 11, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1967): 3–4.

⁶⁵ Marriott, Oliver, “Alcan Consolidates Capital Operations in U.K.,” Times (London), 19 June 1967Google Scholar, 00161–08, no. 6, RTA.

⁶⁶ CEI-Genève, typed case study of Rogerstone West Works Sheet Mill.

⁶⁷ Anon., “Alindustries Adds Foil in U.K.,” Compass 8, no. 9 (Nov. 1964): 6; Anon., “A New Home for Polyfoil,” Compass 10, no. 7 (Sept. 1966): 8–9; Anon., “Alindustries Buys Interest in Aston-Stedall,” Compass 9, no. 4 (May 1965): 15.

⁶⁸ Alcan, “This is Alcan Booth,” Apr. 1970, 00161–08, no. 3, RTA.

⁶⁹ According to Elton, P. J., “Profile of a Merchant Banker,” Compass, May 1977, 6–7Google Scholar; 00161–08, no. 18, RTA.

⁷⁰ Anon., “New Market Leader in Alcan Booth,” Compass 14, no. 5 (June 1970): 3–6; “Alcan Aluminium (UK) Limited,” R. H. A. Forbes to J. G. Holloway, 24 Aug. 1981; 00161–08, no. 34, RTA.

⁷¹ For the following discussion, see, in detail, Perchard, “A Marriage of Mutual Convenience?”; Niall G. MacKenzie, “Be Careful What You Wish For: Comparative Advantage and the Wilson Smelters Project, 1967–82,” paper presented at the annual conference of the European Business History Association, Bergen, 21–23 Aug. 2008; and, from the perspective of Alcan, Ludovic Cailluet and Matthias Kipping, “Strategizing in a Complex Environment: Business, Government and the Lynemoufh Aluminium Smelter, 1965–1973,” paper presented at the 29th annual conference of the Strategic Management Society, Washington, D.C., 11–14 Oct. 2009.

⁷² Hans Otto Frøland, “The Political Economy of European Expansion Programs: The Anglo-Norwegian Aluminium Conflict, 1967–70,” paper presented at the annual conference of the European Business History Association, Bergen, 21–23 Aug. 2008.

⁷³ According to Tugendhat, Christopher, The Multinationals (New York, 1972), 101–2Google Scholar, who seems to have interviewed Elton.

⁷⁴ MacKenzie “Be Careful What You Wish For.”

⁷⁵ Anon., “Welcome Rationalisation,” Economist, 5 Oct. 1968.

⁷⁶ Alcan, Annual Report, 1982.

⁷⁷ Anon., “The Birth of British Alcan,” Compass 27, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1983): 13–17.

⁷⁸ Anon., “British Alcan Gets in Shape,” Compass 29, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1985): 3–10.

⁷⁹ Campbell, , Global Mission, vol. 3, 879–886.Google Scholar For the following, see, in detail, Matthias Kipping and Ludovic Cailluet, “Ménage à Trois: Alcan in Spain, 1950s to 1980s,” Cahiers d'histoire de l'aluminium, nos. 44/45, forthcoming, Oct. 2010.

⁸⁰ Anon., “Into the Big League with Spain,” Compass 24, no. 5 (Aug. 1980): 6–8.

⁸¹ Alcan, Annual Report, 1971.

⁸² Mintzberg, , Tracking Strategies, 7.Google Scholar

⁸³ Anon., “Change Brings Opportunities,” Compass 29, no. 4 (Nov.-Dec. 1985): 35.

⁸⁴ Anon., “Determined to Be the Best,” Compass 30, no. 3 (1986).

⁸⁵ Anon., “Morton to Succeed Culver,” Compass 32, no. 4 (1988): 14.

⁸⁶ Anon., “Alcan's European Sheet Foil Operations Unite,” Compass 31, no. 2 (1987): 20.

⁸⁷ Interview with G. de Saint Rémy, former CEO of Alcan France, 4 Apr. 2009; Anon., “Norsk Hydro Buys Five Alcan Extrusion Plants,” Compass 30, no. 4 (1986): 26.

⁸⁸ For details, see Kipping and Cailluet, “Menage à Trois.” Inespal was privatized in 1998 and bought by Alcoa.

⁸⁹ Anon., “Alcan's Dynamic Duo,” Compass 33, no. 3 (Sept. 1989): 19–21.

⁹⁰ Anon., “Focusing on Growth and Value,” Compass 44, no. 2 (May 2000): 4–6.

⁹¹ Anon., “Alcan Restructures in Europe,” Compass 40, no. 4 (Aug. 1996): 10.

⁹² The latter was bought by Monitor Clipper Partners, which sold it to Norsk Hydro in 2002; http://www.monitorclipper.com/html/portfolio/technal.html, accessed 3 Apr. 2009.

⁹³ Anon., “Nachterstedt Plant to Link with Norf Expansion,” Compass 38, no. 4 (Oct. 1994): 10–11.

⁹⁴ See esp. Gooding, Kenneth, “Survey of Aluminium: On the Side of the Angels,” Financial Times, 25 Oct. 1989.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Thaure, Philippe, Pechiney? … vendu! (Paris, 2007), 182.Google Scholar Alcoa followed a similar strategy, acquiring Alumax in the United States, then buying Spanish and Italian companies, as well as parts of the former British Alcan Aluminium. In 2000 it merged with Reynolds Metals.

⁹⁶ Anon., “Alcan, Pechiney and Algroup Announce Proposed Merger,” Compass 43, no. 4 (Sept. 1999): 8–9.

⁹⁷ According to Thaure, Pechiney? … vendu!, who interviewed most of the major protagonists.

⁹⁸ Anon., “Focusing on Growth and Value,” Compass 44, no. 2 (May 2000): 4–6, here 5; Anon., “Proposed Alcan-Algroup Merger Takes Shape,” Compass 44, no. 3 (July 2000): 4; Anon., “Management Team Announced for Proposed New Alcan,” Compass 44, no. 4 (Sept. 2000): 8–9.

⁹⁹ Anon., “Expansion Planned for Automotive Components in Europe,” Alcan World 2, no. 3 (Dec. 2002): 7.

¹⁰⁰ Anon., “FlexPac Will Be a Big Boost for Packaging,” Alcan World 3, no. 1 (Apr. 2003): 12; Anon., “Welcome New Colleagues,” Alcan World 3, no. 2 (2nd Quarter, 2003): 1.

¹⁰¹ http://www.hindalco.com/media/press_releases/200702feb/hindalco_and_novelis.htm.

¹⁰² Fortier, Yves, “A Bright Future Ahead,” Alcan World 7, no. 2 (3rd Quarter 2007): 3Google Scholar; Anon., “Rio Tinto and Alcan-A Winning Combination,” ibid., 4.

¹⁰³ Anon., “Aluminium: Gimme Smelter,” Economist, 19 July 2007: Anon., “BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto: Financial Prospecting,” Economist, 15 Nov. 2007.

¹⁰⁴ Anon., “Built on Strengths,” Our World 1, no. 1 (ist Quarter 2008): 6–7.

¹⁰⁵ Mintzberg, , ed., Tracking Strategies, 7Google Scholar; in detail, Mintzberg, and Waters, , “Of Strategies,” 259–62.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., 268.

¹⁰⁷ Chandler, Alfred D. Jr, Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise (Cambridge, Mass., 1962)Google Scholar; Mintzberg, , ed., Tracking Strategies, ch. 12.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Jones, Geoffrey, Renewing Unilever: Transformation and Tradition (Oxford, 2005), ch. 11.Google Scholar