The business world has become a very uncertain place since UK voted to leave the EU, the election of Donald Trump as US President and now the UK’s impending General Election.
Yet, rather than actively seeking more widely for opportunities there seems to be a level of inertia, whether from complacency or frozen panic, among UK businesses.
We can learn a lot from the way China is pursuing its growth strategy across the world and creating links on multiple fronts with other countries.
These have included investing in massive infrastructure projects in Africa and central Asia including a rail link between China and London. The first return train from Yiwu on China’s East coast completed the 15,000-mile round trip two weeks ago.
The importance of having a vision
Only time will tell what the outcome of the Brexit negotiations will be but already the repercussions of the decision to leave are beginning to show in the UK economy.
Some companies have already announced plans to move some of their operations to other places, such as Ireland, France or Germany and the £Sterling devaluation has begun to feed through into food and other prices in the shops and into UK inflation.
This will add to the trading pressures on UK businesses.
It is well established that a business that stands still is one that will ultimately stagnate and is unlikely to survive.
So, adopting a “wait and see” approach will not do. UK business leaders need to be planning ahead and widening their horizons, at the very least by exploring options and making connections as a prelude to defining plans for the future.
Turning the vision into a global business strategy
Given the size of China and their increasing involvement and influence in the global economy, it might seem daunting to make approaches but they offer scope for developing a strategy that reaches out to the rest of the world.
A first step could be to establish links with Chinese people in London and work out opportunities for forging relationships and doing business with them. Not just buying from them but there are opportunities for collaborating with them, for providing the technology, skills, experience and even products to them as part of a strategy that might help UK reverse the decline of its global business interests.