Dusseldorf Her warning could hardly be more topical: companies would be confronted with geopolitical risks in the future, says management consultant Katrin Suder in the current episode of the podcast “Handelsblatt Disrupt”. Managers must prepare their companies for this. If they don’t succeed, “it can happen that their business basis is switched off overnight,” says the 50-year-old, who was State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense from 2014 to 2018.
Handelsblatt editor-in-chief Sebastian Matthes and Suder talked about the task of companies to position themselves in a new world order and to react to factors that could endanger business: the consequences of the Ukraine war, the technology competition with the USA and China and the climate crisis.
With Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the greatest geopolitical risk has already materialized. A new wave of refugees within the European Union, rising oil, gas and raw material prices and falling share prices are possible consequences for Europe. “Putin is clearly an aggressor,” says Suder. “To what extent one wants to do business with such regimes is on the corporate agenda.”
Suder also spoke about the technology competition between the EU and the USA and China. Technology has a “new, politicized value,” she said. In order not to become economically dependent, industry must catch up with future technologies: semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, blockchain, robotics, cryptotechnology, the Internet of Things, biotech.
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This also includes the mega-topic “Environmental, Social, Governance” (ESG), i.e. ecological, social or ethical standards of economic activity. Politicians and investors are the drivers to enforce ESG on the financial markets.
More: The previous episode of Handelsblatt Disrupt can be found here