Brexit Britain and the Dunkirk spirit

Companies in the UK, Europe and beyond, will now be poring over every twist and turn of negotiations and every shift of political opinion to determine the likely impact on their processes and strategy. The FT’s chief economics commentator, Martin Wolf sets the scene for what might lie in store for Britain. ‘Economically, it will lose favourable access to by far its biggest market. Politically, it will create great stresses inside the UK and Ireland. Strategically, it will eject the UK from its role in EU councils. The UK will be poorer, more divided and less influential.’ Injecting a dose of economic reality, he adds: ‘The evidence on modern trade is clear: distance is of enormous importance. The supply chains that link physical goods and services together work best over short distances.’

Brexit advice

Now that the Rubicon has been crossed, how will companies cope, especially regarding the movement of EU labour? FT | IE Corporate Learning Alliance will offer tailored programmes of operational and strategic guidance to clients, using a unique, news-based perspective to help companies frame the challenges, interpret fast-changing developments and ask the right questions. During the next two years, companies will have to decide when to act, when to prepare to act later, and when just to ‘wait and see’. They will have to discern what is credible news and what might be happening behind the scenes. And they will have to view Brexit through the particular prism of their own sector, as they lobby for preferential treatment. Brexit is unique. There are no ready-made answers.