By John Richardson
THE New Normal is a journey of discovery, as my colleague Paul Hodges pointed out in his blog post yesterday.
As this latest global economic crisis develops, it is vital that we start the journey otherwise many of us will end up out of work. Some chemicals companies will simply not survive unless they dismantle and completely rebuild their strategies.
Strategies will, of course, need to be region-specific. What works for China will be different from how you will need to reshape your businesses in the rest of Asia-Pacific and the West.
And so, over the next few weeks, I will publish a series of blog posts on each of the regions, starting with China on Monday.
As a trailer for Monday, here is one key message to ponder over the weekend: China will replace the US as the global economic superpower.
Look at the history of the US for some clues about where China is heading.
Then ask yourself this question: Why should China be any different, in the long run, from the US in many aspects of the way it builds a self-reliant economy? Energy self-sufficiency is only one part of this story.
As for the “top down” global view, see the above slide. There are some common themes that will apply across all regions, even if the detail in each region will be quite different.
It isn’t going to be easy and will require a lot of hard work and trial and error. But sitting back and doing nothing is surely not an option for anybody anymore.