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OCR Page 1 of 41here is going to be a Day of Judgment. If there isn't a day up
T
there, it's when you're lying on your deathbed. And you're going
to say to yourself: 'Well, what did I achieve in my life?' It's not
how much money you've made, or how big a house you've got, or
how many cars. It's what you did for your fellow man. It's
'What did I do to make the world better?' That's what it's going
to come down to."
The man uttering these words seems as sincere as a pastor in the pulpit
on a Sunday morning. Yet his many critics think of him and his corporation
as a villain, a beast, even the devil in-
carnate. The speaker, remarkably, is
Geoffrey C. Bible, chairman and chief
Cover Story
executive of Philip Morris Cos. He over-
sees the world's largest tobacco company, arguably the most reviled cor-
poration in America.
In the U.S., where more than 400,000 people die annually from smoking-
related diseases, it could be said that Bible's company, with its 50% mar-
ket share, is to blame for the often agonizing deaths of some 200,000 smok-
ers a year. So how can Bible, of all people, speak so passionately about an
individual's obligation to society?
That, of course, is a dilemma that each of Philip Morris' 144,000 em-
ployees must wrestle with. Rarely has an industry or a corporation been
so deeply vilified and so thoroughly discredited as Big Tobacco and its
biggest player, Philip Morris. Few employees have escaped the loathing
heaped on their company. Almost all have faced The Question, the in-
evitable inquiry laced with accusation that sooner or later always gets
INSIDE AMERICA'S MOST REVILED COMPANY
asked-at the PTA, a dinner party, or Little League: "How can you work
for a company that kills people?"
It's not a question that is easily answered. Execs at Philip Morris tend
to frame their response in self-righteous, almost combative terms. Cig-
arettes, they will tell you, are lawful products that any adult should have
the right to buy. It is a matter of freedom of choice, no different from
the right to own a handgun, drink a martini, or eat a Big Mac. But probe
a little deeper and it becomes clear that their attitudes are far more com-
plex and that many at Philip Morris make a difficult peace with the com-
pany's mission.
Indeed, Philip Morris is a company fraught with contradictions. In the
past year, it has spent $100 million to persuade kids not to smoke. By the
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISS WADE
BUSINES WILK / NOVI MBI 29. 1999 177
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