It’s been an interesting exercise to conduct research with clients and business leaders across the globe these past few months. We have just launched our annual global survey of business leaders last week, exploring how executives intend to Achieve their post-pandemic vision to be leaner, greener and keener. What our research has revealed is the extent to which the lack of global and national coordination around the pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities in our systems for living, working, trading, plus amplified many familiar challenges for governments across the globe. Decisions, by governments and businesses, on whether to open or close borders, whether to open or close shops, what vaccine to develop and how to manage their roll-out, all have significant knock-on effects for business and society. Each decision also reveals the trade-offs involved and their impacts on equality, fairness, access to good healthcare, all critical questions governments face to keep people safe from harm, and, at the same time, active in a healthy economy and labour market.
The importance of good government
Despite the disruption and the uncertainty, an impressive 75% of business leaders we’ve surveyed around the globe are confident of growth in 2021. Of course, this ‘stat’ (an average across 55 countries and nearly 600 business leaders) includes some relatively positive sentiment from executives based in countries managing the pandemic well. In China, for example, 87% of business leaders are confident in their own growth prospects for growth in 2021. It’s not just a case of ‘first in and first out’ of the pandemic, there’s more to it. Experience in managing flu outbreaks, such as SARS, has better-prepared economies in the Asia Pacific (such as China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan) to effectively contain the pandemic and its economic impacts. More critically, these countries benefit from significant government investment in physical and technological infrastructure as well as well-funded healthcare systems to support physical and economic wellbeing. An adept approach to the crisis, in turn, fosters more trust in governments to manage the pandemic and more support for policies designed to contain further outbreaks (including adherence to restrictions).Click here to learn more.
