How to Make a Global Joint Venture Work

In the 1960s and early 1970s, a number of U.S. and foreign companies, spurred by tales of great wealth lying on the seabed, were independently looking for mine sites and evaluating techniques for raising manganese nodules to the ocean surface. By 1980 all of these independent efforts had coalesced into five major ventures. Four of these were international, headed by U.S. Steel, INCO, Lockheed, and Kennecott; the fifth was an all-French venture. At least one U.S. company voiced strong opposition to the notion of bringing in partners, but in view of the technical, economic, and political risks involved, a joint venture partnership was the only means of continuing.