The Synthetic Beast: When Corporations Come to Life

Robert W. Sexty is a professor of commerce and business administration
at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the author of Canadian
Business: Issues and Stakeholders.

In order to appreciate this book’s thesis, two terms must be defined:
a hypercorp is a corporation that has developed to the point where the
welfare of the corporation has become more important than the function
it ostensibly serves; a metacorp is a group of people (or of hypercorps)
with a common interest but no formal bonds.

The author’s thesis is that the true corporation is a synthetic beast
in that it makes its own decisions and controls the people who think
they control it. (By “corporation,” Turnbull means not only the
business corporation but also those formed by government, churches,
armies, the media, education and health systems, trade unions, the
ecology and women’s movements, and international organizations such as
the WTO.) All corporations should be feared as they take over and impose
corporate rather than human values on society.

Turnbull traces the evolution of hypercorps from ancient times,
covering all facets of society and comparing them with the social
arrangements of insects and animals. Although it is too late to stop the
drift to corporate rule, he argues that society must develop techniques
to control corporations. Unfortunately, he fails to provide an adequate
conceptual framework for his discussion of the evolution of hypercorps.
His use of short paragraphs, often consisting of one sentence, further
detracts from his book’s reader-friendliness.