Is Britain brave enough? Turning a crisis into opportunity

Britain faces three big challenges, in addition to the
healthcare crisis of Covid-19

1. Economic crisis – $2 trillion in debt, economy that shrunk by 20%, we have been bouncing back in a V shape (8.7% in June, 6.6% in July), but still 11% smaller. Now Boris is announcing further restrictions which will cause further economic challenges.

2. International Relations crisis – a new Cold War is developing between China & US. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi said US political attacks on China over the coronavirus and global trade matters, “… are taking China/US relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War.” “We are essentially in the beginning of a Cold War.” Orville Schell, the director of the Center on US – China Relations at the Asia Society, told Insider.

3. Climate change crisis – which is longer term, but we need to prepare for it now or see ourselves in peril in five to ten years. Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 286 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2016, while Antarctica lost about 127 billion tons of ice per year during the same time period.

Crises are also a source of opportunities:

• Crisis spurs innovation – WW2 gave us computers, jet engines, nuclear bombs, and Penicillin which saved 200 million lives more than double what died in the war. This crisis will also spur innovation & it will be a source of opportunities for those brave enough to take them.

• Crisis brings opportunity – Business strategy derives its heritage from military strategy and German General von Clausewitz who wrote the genius strategy book “On War” explains that crisis is “a continuous source of new opportunities” for those with the courage to act. Doing nothing is not an option in crisis as things have changed and we must act to move with the changing tides.

Britain & British businesses need to do three things:

1. Be global – coming out of EU, with new global possibilities, and also the contest for primacy between China & US which will shape international relations for coming decades, Britain can play a crucial orchestrating role of nation with which it holds historical and diplomatic ties.

2. Be sustainable – invest in green tech, renewables and redesign our cities like London to be greener: less pollution, better places to live and work.

3. Be digital – Covid-19 caused five to ten years of digitization in two months, as Harvard Business Review said “nothing has widened the physical digital divide like Covid-19”. This should be accelerated further with AI transformation. Using Artificial intelligence to optimize business operations, improve productivity and raise commercial value. Britain can and should be a world leader in AI; Alan Turing invented AI, Englishman Geoffrey Hinton invented Deep Learning and Deepmind which lead’s Google’s AI efforts is founded by British Demis Hassabis and based in London. Britain can be a world leader in AI with gov support.

With this active strategy, of focusing on growth areas, Britain & British business can be like nimble SMEs outperforming large multinational businesses, by being more agile and quicker to adapt change and focusing on growth areas.

We also need to be brave, open our economy, end the lockdown which stifles growth. With the courage to act, this crisis could be a source of opportunity.