Some crises are anticipated, others unlikely, and some are simply impossible to foresee.
As we look ahead to new and emerging business opportunities and challenges in 2018 its worth remembering that all forecasts come with a health warning, especially where politics and economics are involved. Back 9 years ago, in the aftermath of the financial collapse of 2008 on a visit to the London School of Economics and with a second Great Depression looming, the Queen asked a simple but devastating question: why did nobody see it coming?
Inclusive dialogue is so often the prerequisite for positive change
Last Wednesday a concerning statistic for the business community in the UK and Ireland emerged which didn’t directly relate to economic performance, employment, Brexit, skills availability or any other pressing issue.
It’s funny how people can get something into their head that is incorrect and no matter what conventional wisdom says or common–sense dictates, they simply cannot shift from it. A friend of mine had twins, a boy and a girl, and when she would meet people out walking when the children were young some would ask if they were identical, knowing they were separate sex twins. For whatever reason, some people associate twins with being identical only no matter what the evidence suggests.
On the eve of last year’s historic referendum decision, Charles Dunstone, entrepreneurial founder of Carphone Warehouse stated confidently: ‘In my experience there are calculated risks, there are clever risks, and there are unnecessary and dangerous risks. And from all I can conclude, Brexit sits firmly in the latter camp.’
I wonder what Benjamin Franklin, one of the great societal contributors in US history would make of civic leadership in our world today?