The real importance of Iridium, however, transcends technology. Iridium is the world's first pan-national corporation, a global partnership created, from Day One, without control by any one country. It takes that emblem of 20th-century capitalism, the multinational company, and kicks it into the next millennium. Iridium's core identity is defined by its transcendence of national borders, a structure that is particularly post-Cold War. If global privatization and the lowering of trade barriers continue, Iridium may well serve as a first model of the 21st-century corporation.
Iridium is something that starts as a global entity.
Roughly 30 percent of Iridium's shares are controlled by American companies, with the remainder distributed among investors around the world. Whatever profits derive from the Iridium service are repatriated to the investors' home countries, where they face local taxes and local investment decisions. In turn, Iridium's partners are assigned territories to manage on their own, forming separate companies. Fifteen of these operations, with names like Iridium Italia and Iridium China, have been started - each independent, each with its own CEO and governing board. They meet around the world, shuttling among Moscow, London, Kyoto, Rio de Janeiro, and Rome, surrounded by an entourage of assistants and translators.