In 2007 I was head of the Management Association of Pakistan. In October of that year I was attending a management conclave in Kolkata. The hosts for this conference were the Tata Group. On the last evening a dinner was hosted by Ratan Tata, then chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company. Over dinner Ratan asked me whether I planned to visit Jamshedpur, the original Tata town, north of Kolkata. I said I was not, as my flight left at 9 pm the next night. Ratan said "Be ready at 6 am. My helicopter will take you to Jamshedpur and have you back by 4 pm. You will have plenty of time to catch your flight". So I went. Jamshedpur was established in 1919 for some Tata industrial projects. Almost everything in Jamshedpur, even after 100 years, is managed or administered by the Tata Group. The municipal services, the educational institutions, commercial service, etc. I am not a social historian, but if you study the evolution of towns and cities, you will see that they formed and grew around some central pivot Ports, Rivers, Military establishments, Natural endowments, educational institutions (University town like Harvard) whole cities have grown up around gambling. Las Vegas, Macau and Atlantic City (Donald Trump has two casinos).
Pakistan has been fortunate. Many companies have played a pivotal role in developing towns in the peripheries of their operations. ICI set up operations in Khewra, Punjab in the 1930s. The town of Khewra has benefitted greatly - schools, roads, hospitals etc if ICI was not there, Khewra would now be a decrepit place. When natural gas was discovered in Sui in the early 1950s, the landscape changed. The Pakistan Petroleum Company (PPL) has transformed Sui into a thriving town. The only factor PPL did not effectively deal with was Nawab Akbar Bugti. Mr Bugti squeezed every benefit he could from PPL for 50 years. Similarly, Daharki was a snake-infested village. Then came Exxon. The development work Exxon (now Engro) did in Dharki has to be lauded. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank who have made 'poverty alleviation' as their central strategy, need to learn from these case studies. Similarly, Kohinoor textile mills was set up in the mid 50s in Lyallpur(now Faisalabad). In those days Lyallpur was a small town. KTM eventually employed over one lac people and played a central role in the evolution of Lyallpur.
All over the world, company towns exist. Wolfsburg, Germany, is home to Volkswagen. Eight out of 10 people in Wolfsburg derive their living from Volkswagen. When the emission scandal broke in September 2015, Volkswagen's equity lost 30% of its value. Citizens of Wolfsburg went into a deep depression. Every Sunday services are held in the local churches for the speedy recovery of Volkswagen. In America the complete company town is Bentonville, Arkansas. It is the home of Walmart, the second largest corporation in the world. Walmart's economy is twice the size of Pakistan. Everything in Bentonville is Walmart sanctioned - even the air you breath. Walmart is the largest buyer in the world for products. Companies from all over the world (India, China, Japan, Brazil etc) line up in Bentonville to negotiate deals. Walmart has so much clout that they negotiate the most competitive prices. Vendors hate Walmart for its buying practices. Walmart is known as the 'Beast of Bentonville'. Detroit, Michigan, has been a company town since 1920. The big three automobile companies of USA set up shops here - General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. Detroit has produced famous characters like Alfred Sloan (the father of Industrial Engineering), Henry Ford and Lee Iacocca. The most well known company town is Hollywood. Movies were invented here 115 years ago. Hollywood is as strong and relevant as ever.
Larkana, Sindh, is also a company town. It belongs to Bhutto/Zardari Inc. A development package of Rs 80 billion was sanctioned many years ago. I understand some of the money went to a famous Indian actress (of Quantico fame) who visits Dubai regularly. (The writer is the former Executive Director of the Management Association of Pakistan)
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