Seven Business Challenges In A Divided America
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5. Globalization vs Nationalism.
Nationalization is now your business issue.
Think Ford. Ford is caught in the political spotlight over building a car manufacturing plant in Mexico.
Doing so enables this American car manufacturer to maintain cost competitiveness in the global small car marketplace. But doing so could undermine its brand equity in the United States.
The ramifications extend to Ford dealers and customers. If you are a Ford dealer do you want only Made in America vehicles even if they could cost more?
If you are car customer, will you actually be willing to pay substantially more for your car or truck so it can be manufactured in America?
Globalization vs nationalism is now a mine field for every brand and American company.
6. Disruptive technologies.
America’s divide is not just on politics. It is divided on technology.
Cities like San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Austin, Portland and Seattle are designing, building, financing and selling 21st century’s technologies that are emerging as the lower cost, higher quality alternative to manual labor.
This trend will dominate from the fast food counter to the manufacturing floor. It conflicts heavily with increased voter focus on manual labor job loss. The obvious question is whether your business adoption of 21st century technologies will win customers or make them feel threatened?
7. Executive Conflict of Interest.
It currently appears that our President-elect seeks to retain family control over his businesses, located around the world, while fulfilling his duties as President.
If he does so then conflict of interest will become a national issue. Is it naive to believe once this issue is raised on a national level that it will not spread to every business owner and leader?
An immediate protective step is to engage legal counsel in an audit of your conduct. Another step is to engage an advisory board composed of trustworthy community members to advise and audit on code of conduct issues.
For companies with a board of directors, conflict of interest issues should become a proactive focus.
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