At the Kristiansand refinery, the 1950s are remembered as the era of rapid expansion. Production tripled and the plant was thoroughly upgraded. However, the development of the Kristiansand subsidiary was not a foregone conclusion. The war had weakened its position somewhat as the political risk of conducting the refining in Norway had been exposed. As we shall see the post-war strengthening of the Toronto head office also reduced Kristiansand's influence within the company.

From 1950 onwards Falconbridge profited enormously from the US strategic stockpiling programme. The American subsidies and the huge deliveries to the stockpiles revived the whole question of building a new Canadian refinery. If this had been realized it would of course have diminished Falconbridge's need for the Kristiansand refinery and it could indeed have cast its long-term survival into doubt.

This chapter investigates Grønningsæter and Steen's endeavours to protect and promote the Kristiansand subsidiary's mandate within the Falconbridge organization and their efforts to modernize and expand the plant. As shown in Chapter 1, Julian Birkinshaw, Neil Hood, Robert Pearce and Joseph D'Crutz have all argued that affiliates often fight for their mandates within multinational companies.

The fact that subsidiary managers try to promote the interests of their fiefdoms is perhaps not very surprising. It might be just as rewarding to ask how and why this is done.