AICD Boardroom Confidential

Now more than ever, geopolitics is shaping organisational planning, investment and risk management. In this discussion, Merriden breaks down what the present and future ‘polycrisis’ world means for directors, and highlights the global megatrends reshaping board agendas.

Conversation soundbites

Explore today's geopolitical forces through the strategic lens of Merriden Varrall. 

• From headlines to megatrends (00:01:50:10 - 00:02:25:10) 
  Guiding boards to look beyond headlines and to focus on structural geopolitical and megatrend scenarios. 

• Polycrisis as the new normal (00:02:25:12 - 00:02:47:11) 
  Understand how risk scenarios from climate, energy, food to tech is compounding and becoming increasingly interconnected. 

• Trust gap and populism(00:03:38:03 - 00:04:06:07 OR 00:08:35:00 - 00:08:56:06)
  What does it mean to be trustworthy and how the rise of populism is reshaping regulation, policy and expectations.  

• Geo-economic fragmentation(00:24:59:22 - 00:25:29:03) 
  Understanding the influence of values-based blocs, national security logic and how “de-risking is changing trade, investment and tech choices. 

• It’s not just big corporates (00:10:02:19 - 00:10:29:16)
  International relations and geopolitical risks affect SME and NFPs through their supply chains, cyber threats, regulations, funding and talent acquisition.  

• Boards’ core questions(00:11:48:15 - 00:12:16:16) 
  Are we thinking about geopolitics? How are we monitoring it? What scenarios have planned for and are our responses sufficient? 

• Supply chain resilience(00:28:37:23 - 00:29:01:03)
  Having “just in case” models ready. Mapping choke points and how to set up data and signals to act early.