ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some techniques of enterprise organisation which, though apparently internal, have the effect of decentralising certain control functions from the level of the government. There are a large number of holding companies in the public sector – both in developed and in developing countries. Italy, among the former, has the famous IRI and ENI; Spain, the INA; France, the Renault; and the UK, the National Enterprise Board with 22 subsidiaries and 38 associated companies. A major proposal made by the National Economic Development Office (NEDO) in the UK at the end of an elaborate study of the government-public enterprise problems, favoured the establishment of a two-tier board system for each nationalised industry, consisting of a Policy Council and the usual board (of directors). Some explanation is necessary as we think of enterprise boards as a tool in control decentralisation.
