War in Europe awakens CEOs from their “geopolitical nap”

For strategy consultants like BCG, this observation represents an opportunity. The Boston-based group launched its Center for Geopolitics this week, which Lang will chair.

“Most people in leadership positions today have always worked in an environment where geopolitics did not play a role,” Lang said. “Those who are in their 40s or 50s today have not experienced inflation for 20 years and conflict for 60 to 70 years. But in the last five years they have experienced a series of external shocks that they were simply not prepared for… That puts a lot of pressure on leaders.”

In response, the consultancy has already developed a model to play out future trade and investment scenarios, taking into account a staggering 500 million data points on 5,000 commodities, 200 countries and 10 input factors. “There is a gap” between deep geopolitical expertise and decision-making on issues such as outsourcing and foreign direct investment, which is usually driven by labor costs alone, Lang said.

The return of (geo)politics to business is one of the three most common strategic services offered at consulting firms today. The other two are the green transition and the AI ​​revolution. CEO Daily readers and consulting clients ignore them at their own peril.

In this sense: Assets and Meta organized a breakfast meeting on AI at the Cannes Lions conference this week, led by Assets‘s AI editor and author of Mastering AIJeremy Kahn. But the marketing people Jeremy met in Cannes still need to wake up a bit themselves, he wrote in AssetsNewsletter “Eye on AI”:

“I was reminded at Cannes this year that the advertising industry has not yet fully internalized the magnitude of the impending platform shift,” Jeremy noted. “As AI chatbots and assistants become our primary means of internet access and e-commerce, the way brands reach their consumers will fundamentally change.” At Cannes, he concluded, “the tide was turning. But it wasn’t clear whether the partygoers in the beach tents and on the yachts had noticed.”

More news below.

Peter Vanham
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THis edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.

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