Latest news with #globalSupplyChains
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Is Your Business Ready? How Strategic Reinvention Beats Disruption
As leaders, we are all facing an accelerating cascade of disruptions. We had barely recovered from the pandemic when Russia's invasion of Ukraine plunged Europe back into war, further disrupting global supply chains in the process. At the same time, the emergence of generative AI is transforming whole industries and impacting virtually every aspect of your business. If all that was not enough to contend with, we now must deal with tariffs, trade wars, and the upending of the global rules-based order. That is why the most urgent task for every company is what I call strategic reinvention. Don't wait to become a victim of disruption – take control of your future by beginning the process ... More of strategic reinvention today so your company doesn't just survive change, but thrives by leading it. According to PwC's latest annual survey of CEOs, 42 percent say their companies will not make it another 10 years if they continue on their current path – and that was before the current trade war began. PwC found that 63 percent of CEOs have tried to change course, but most of those efforts are insufficient to meet the challenges those companies face. 'Will these moves be enough to power reinvention? For many CEOs, the honest answer will be no,' PwC concluded. 'Barriers to reinvention include weak decision-making processes, low levels of resource reallocation from year to year, and a mismatch between the short expected tenure of many CEOs and powerful long-term forces, or megatrends, at work.' I believe companies can overcome these deficiencies through a simple, four-phases strategic reinvention process. It starts with radical clarity – taking a hard, unflinching look at your company's situation, both internally and externally, and the challenges and opportunities created by this current era of disruption. You need to identify the assumptions you are making and challenge each of those in a structured and deliberate manner. You also need to look at not only the macroeconomy, but other external forces and factors that are impacting your business, or which could impact your business in the future. Once you have that clarity, you need to develop a strategic reinvention plan. If you are a successful company, this will be an evolution of your current business strategy informed by the insights you gleaned from the first phase. If you are already struggling or facing an existential crisis, then a more radical reinvention may be in order. In any event, this should be a collaborative, iterative process that includes your entire leadership team. Don't pay others to do this for you; developing and implementing a winning strategy is why you and your executive team get the big bucks. Don't outsource thinking to a high-priced consulting company that you know will turn that work over to a bunch of recent business school grads or dust off the same plan they developed for one of your competitors last year. The next step is resiliency testing. That means stress-testing your strategic reinvention plan to ensure that it is strong enough and flexible enough to stand up to whatever tomorrow throws at you. The best way to do this is by conducting a Pre-Mortem Analysis. This is a powerful technique developed by my friend and colleague Dr. Gary Klein that is designed to uncover the causes of failure so that you can modify your plan to prevent those from occurring or develop mitigating actions if they do. Other tools, such as my own Swan Dive method can help as well. The final phase is unified execution. This not only means working together effectively as one team to implement your strategic reinvention plan but also communicating your plan simply and clearly so that every single man and woman in your organization understands it and knows where to put their shoulder to get the flywheel moving in the right direction. Unified execution also means effectively managing the implementation of your new plan, and that requires transparency and accountability. The best way to create both is the Business Plan Review Process developed by my mentor, legendary CEO Alan Mulally. He used the BPR Process to save two of the largest, most iconic companies in the world from bankruptcy: Boeing and Ford. It will work for your company, too. By working through these four simple phases together with your leadership team, you will gain a better understanding of where you stand as a company and how to navigate the current maelstrom to help ensure your future success in an increasingly volatile marketplace. This will enable you, as a leader, to move forward with confidence. How does this work in practice? Imagine a large multinational semiconductor corporation facing escalating trade wars and geopolitical tensions. Initially, the leadership team would assess how tariffs, sanctions, and shifting alliances affect their global operations and supply chains. Challenging existing assumptions, they might discover vulnerabilities in raw material sourcing and market dependencies. Next, they would collaboratively develop a strategic reinvention plan to diversify their supply chain, invest in regional manufacturing capabilities, and pivot product portfolios toward markets less exposed to geopolitical disruptions. They then apply resiliency testing, conducting a pre-mortem to anticipate potential failures like sudden sanctions or export controls, adjusting their strategy accordingly. Finally, the entire organization aligns through unified execution, clearly communicating the new strategy to all employees and adopting a transparent management process such as the weekly BPR to maintain agility and swiftly respond to emerging geopolitical shifts. This proactive, internally driven approach positions the corporation not merely to survive disruptions but to thrive amidst uncertainty. 'If CEOs need further encouragement to double down on reinvention, they should note that we see a strong association in the data between the number of reinvention actions companies have taken and the profit margins they achieve,' PwC noted in its annual report. This reveals a powerful truth that highest-performing companies already know: Strategic reinvention is the secret to long-term success, even in more stable operating environments. The best businesses are the ones that disrupt themselves before they are disrupted. I witnessed a great example of this back in 2004 when Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Fujio Cho delivered one of the most amazing keynotes I have ever witnessed at the global automobile industry's annual confab in Traverse City, Michigan. This was hostile territory for Toyota. The auditorium was packed with executives from all the world's automakers, but it was dominated by the three home teams: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. Many of them scowled at Cho or rolled their eyes as he went through a detailed presentation showing how Toyota was meeting or exceeding its strategic targets for every market in the world. When he was finished, Cho took off his glasses, folded them, looked out over the room and said this was why Toyota needed to change its strategy. 'Any company not willing to take the risk of reinventing itself is doomed,' he said. 'The world today is changing much too fast.' Four years later, Toyota passed GM to become the largest automaker in the world. By the end of 2021, it was number one in the United States as well. Like Toyota's Cho, the best leaders in the world know that change is the only constant in the world – and that change requires strategic disruption. This is true in business, and it is true in government and the military as well. Those still fighting the last war always lose. So, don't wait to become a victim of disruption – take control of your future by beginning the process of strategic reinvention today so your company doesn't just survive change, but thrives by leading it.
ABC News
26-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
How IKEA is tackling Trump's tariff tirade
The global trading system is going through one of its most tumultuous periods in recent history as President Donald Trump continues his tariff regime. Less than 48 hours after he announced a 50 per cent tariff on European countries, President Trump paused it, to give more time for trade negotiations. So how are international companies navigating this uncertainty and what will it mean for global supply chains? GUEST: Karen Pflug, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ingka Group, IKEA franchisee
Bloomberg
26-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Thai FM Calls for Joining Global Supply Chains
Thailand's Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa urged ASEAN countries to pursue stronger integration into global supply chains to benefit from economies of scale and gain better access to larger markets. (Source: Bloomberg)
New York Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
U.A.E. Is Pouring Money Into Africa, Seeking Resources and Power
Look at the chief economic and strategic spots across Africa — ports for key trade corridors, mines that produce critical minerals, large renewable energy projects — and you will find the United Arab Emirates. As the United States and, to a lesser extent, China reduce their investment, aid and presence on the African continent, the Emirates is using its enormous wealth and influence to fill the void. Persian Gulf investments in Africa, primarily by the Emirates, have exploded in recent years. Since 2019, $110 billion worth of deals — mostly by firms tightly aligned with the ruling powers — have been announced, dwarfing amounts pledged by any other country. 'The U.A.E. is turning into a dominant foreign player' in much of Africa, said Anna Jacobs, a nonresident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Its efforts to become a world leader, particularly in finance and technology, are likely to be bolstered under President Trump, Ms. Jacobs said. The president, seeking to draw Emirati money to the United States, paved the way this week for the sale of American advanced artificial intelligence chips to the Emirates. The Emirates' wide-ranging investments and efforts to become a world leader in A.I. are part of an ambitious plan to increase the country's influence, particularly over global supply chains. Like other oil-producing nations in the Persian Gulf, the Emirates is looking to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels, and it sees Africa as an essential part of the plan. The continent has vast mineral resources, a growing population, agricultural potential and a strategically important location bordering the Red and Mediterranean Seas as well as the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Powerhouse Emirati corporations based in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with political connections are in dozens of countries across Africa. AMEA Power is already building or operating clean energy plants in Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda and has plans to expand. Abu Dhabi National Energy Company has projects in Morocco, Senegal and South Africa and is participating in a project to invest $10 billion in renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa. DP World, the gargantuan government-backed ports and logistics operator, has invested billions of dollars in ports and economic free zones from Algeria to Zambia, including in the Berbera port city in the breakaway republic of Somaliland, where the Emirates also has a military base. Last summer it announced that it would spend another $3 billion on African ports over the next three to five years. Last year, the Emirati International Holding Company invested more than $1 billion for a 51 percent share in the Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia. Spending in Egypt has also soared. Last year, the Emirates agreed to invest $35 billion to develop a new city and tourism destination on Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Emirati investment in Africa has ramped up as China's has tapered off. Once the biggest foreign investor on the continent through its Belt and Road Initiative, China still has a large presence, but Beijing has pulled back in recent years after a series of debt crises in Africa and economic problems at home. In 2022 and 2023, the Emirates announced a total of $97 billion in investments in Africa — three times China's total, according to fDi Markets, a database of foreign investments. U.S. investment in 2023 was about $10 billion. Experts said that even though not all of these pledges would pan out, they showed an overall commitment to doing business on the continent. The Emirates is also looking to build trade and has signed bilateral economic partnership pacts with three African nations, including Kenya, since the year's start. 'The U.A.E.'s total foreign assistance in Africa, which exceeded $1 billion in 2023-24, also highlights our ongoing commitment to addressing urgent needs,' a government spokesperson on trade and aid said. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has fast-tracked America's exit from Africa, ending billions of dollars in funding, dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development and ending all contributions to the African Development Bank. The State Department's reorganization plan also calls for the elimination of most operations in the region. Britain has also tightened its flow of money into the continent in recent years as it has increased aid to Ukraine and increased its own military spending. The Trump administration's actions are extreme, said Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, a co-director of a program on African governance at Oxford University, but they reflect a larger global trend away from development aid and liberal values. The world is transitioning to an era in which the focus on democracy and free markets is becoming less significant, Mr. Soares de Oliveira said. 'A more business-focused approach is going to be the shared norm,' he added. That isn't to say the Emirates does not have substantial strategic and political interests in Africa. What's different is that it has delegated statecraft to private interests and businesses, almost all of which have ties in some way to the government or ruling families, said Andreas Krieg, a fellow at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King's College London. These enterprises are expected to generate both economic and strategic returns. 'The U.A.E. has revolutionized statecraft for a small country,' Mr. Krieg said. It has fewer than one million citizens, is smaller than the state of Indiana and has a relatively tiny military. Yet, he said, 'it's very much playing the game of a middle power.' Some of the Emirates' political choices have stirred concerns. Sudan's government has accused the Emirates of fueling genocide with its backing of the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group engaged in a civil war that has killed 150,000 and displaced 14 million people. Recently, Sudan's military cut diplomatic ties with the Emirates, which has said it has provided only humanitarian assistance. The Emirates has also been accused of funneling money to the Russian mercenary group Wagner in both Sudan and Libya. 'There is no such thing as clean or dirty money in the U.A.E.,' Mr. Krieg said. Ken Opalo, an associate lecturer at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, said the Emirates aimed to be the world's gateway to Africa for investment and trade, whether legal or smuggled. The gold trade alone that passes mostly through Dubai is worth $30 billion, he said. 'The U.A.E. has developed a robust regulatory framework that ensures that the trade in gold is conducted with the maximum security, integrity and transparency,' an Emirati official said. As Mr. Trump's visit to the gulf region this week illustrates, Washington considers the Emirates a reliable ally in the region and in Africa. The two countries have maintained close security ties. But Washington may underestimate just how valuable the commercial partnership between the Emirates and China is. Ambitious investments in green energy in Africa rely on Chinese technology, minerals and goods. 'The U.A.E. ultimately militarily relies on the U.S., but it also wants to position itself as the Switzerland of the gulf where everyone is welcome,' Mr. Opalo said. 'They want to be a renewables hub, and it's hard to play that game without engaging China.'
Zawya
15-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Egypt: SCA calls Maersk to resume Suez Canal transits amid Red Sea stability
Arab Finance: The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Chairman Ossama Rabie has called A.P. Moller-Maersk Group to take positive decisions and amend its shipping schedules by gradually resuming transiting via the Suez Canal amid stability in the Red Sea region, according to a statement. This was discussed with a delegation from A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, headed by Camilla Jain Holtse, the group's Vice President and Head of Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs. Rabiee said the current challenges in the Red Sea region reflected the Suez Canal's role in achieving the sustainability of global supply chains, given their impact on rising operational costs and longer transits. He added that the authority responded to requests from a number of shipping lines to grant a 15% discount on transit fees for container ships with a net tonnage of 130,000 tons or more for 90 days as of May 15th. The current conditions are favorable for making more positive decisions regarding the return of transit through the Suez Canal, he said, highlighting global and regional interest to fully settle the navigation issue in the Red Sea region. For her part, Jain Holtse lauded the strategic role of the Suez Canal, given the partnership between the two sides, which dates back to more than 100 years. She stressed the group's keenness to return to sailing through the Suez Canal, noting that Maersk monitors the latest developments in the security situation in the Red Sea region. © 2020-2023 Arab Finance For Information Technology. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
