Sir John Browne, Chief Executive, BP (headquartered in United Kingdom):

"So open markets, the efficient production and use of natural resources in ways which pose no environmental threat, steady economic development and an open society are the conditions in which we can best pursue our business. 

They run directly contrary, of course, to the common belief that companies find it easier to deal with the apparent stability of repressive regimes than to manage the uncertainties of democracy. In fact, stability built on repression is always false. Sooner or later the waters break the dam." 

[from Corporate Responsibility in an International Context, address by Sir John Browne to Council on Foreign Relations, New York, 13 Nov. 1997]