Business leaders must make sound, data-based decisions about their company's geographic footprint to ensure that they can meet future global challenges. The author's analysis of the Fortune Global 500 finds that COVID-19 will have a lasting effect on the geography of competition, regardless of vaccine availability. He identifies two misconceptions leaders should avoid and points to three trends that that could reshape companies' geographic footprints in the wake of the pandemic.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

Free market, competitive capitalism is dead. The separation between politics and economics can no longer be sustained. In The Corona Crash, leading economics commentator Grace Blakeley theorises about the epoch-making changes that the coronavirus brings in its wake. We are living through a unique moment in history. The pandemic has caused the deepest global recession since the Second World War. Meanwhile the human cost is reflected in a still-rising death toll, as many states find themselves unable—and some unwilling—to grapple with the effects of the virus. Whatever happens, we can never go back to business as usual. This crisis will tip us into a new era of monopoly capitalism, argues Blakeley, as the corporate economy collapses into the arms of the state, and the tech giants grow to unprecedented proportions. We need a radical response. The recovery could see the transformation of our political, economic, and social systems based on the principles of the Green New Deal. If not, the alternatives, as Blakeley warns, may be even worse than we feared.

Much has been written about Covid-19 victims, how scientists raced to understand and treat the disease, and how governments did (or did not) protect their citizens. Less has been written about the pandemic’s impact on the global economy and how companies coped as the competitive environment was upended. In his new book, "The New (Ab)Normal", MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi maps how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted business, supply chains, and society. He exposes the critical role supply chains play in helping people, governments, and companies to manage the crisis. The book draws on executive interviews, pandemic media coverage, and historical analyses. Sheffi also builds on themes from his books "The Resilient Enterprise" (2005) and "The Power of Resilience" (2015) to enrich the narrative. The author paints a compelling picture of how the Covid-19 virus is changing many facets of human life and what our post-pandemic world might look like. This must-read book helps companies to redefine their business models and adjust to a fast-evolving economic landscape. The stage is set In Part 1 of the book, “What Happened,” the author looks at how companies fought to mend the global economic fabric even as the virus ripped more holes in it. Part 2, “Living with Uncertainty,” views the crisis through a supply chain risk management lens derived from Yossi Sheffi’s previous books. This perspective shows how companies create corporate immune systems to quickly recognize and manage large-scale disruptions. The ongoing pandemic is creating a new normal in life, work, and education—covered in Part 3, “Adjustment Required.” Consumer fears about the contagion as well as government mandates require businesses in industries such as retail, hospitality, entertainment, sports, and education to create “safe zones” for workers and customers. Many elements of the book – especially in Part 4, “Supply Chains for the Future” – show how the virus accelerated preexisting trends in technology adoption. China was the epicenter of the pandemic; it also was the first nation to be disrupted and recover. Part 5 of the book, “Of Politics and Pandemics,” explains why reports that companies are abandoning China in favor of other offshore manufacturing centers do not reflect reality. Fundamentally, The New (Ab)Normal is about businesses trying to create a better future in a time of extreme uncertainty – a point emphasized in Part 6, “The Next Opportunities.” The outlook is not necessarily gloomy. The advance of technology is accelerating, a trend that can level the playing field between small and large companies. Nimble small businesses are using a growing array of off-the-shelf cloud computing and mobile apps to deploy sophisticated technologies in their supply chains and customer interfaces. The New (Ab)Normal Another new normal is working from home. Remote working enables individuals to live anywhere and companies to recruit talent from anywhere. Education, especially higher education, faces a major disruption (and major opportunity) that is likely to shake the high-cost model of in-person education in favor of online or hybrid education. Regrettably, the book recognizes one trend accentuated by Covid-19--the growing inequality, and anticipates that the new normal will be more stratified.

This book examines how COVID-19 has often enhanced social and economic marginalisation in different places and societies around the world. It explores the reality that selective deglobalisation is occurring and over and above the human tragedy which has been experienced, many societies and economies have had to adapt to the new reality which they find themselves in. Governments have been challenged to improve health care and provide economic relief and stimulus packages to sectors as diverse as tourism and education which have had to develop new ways of coping. Resilience theory is drawn on to help explain some of the creative responses which we observe, while in other places deep-rooted concerns for the future are a stark reality. By describing how the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing geographic, social and economic marginalisation, particularly for the most vulnerable places, societies and economic activities globally, this book provides insight into the impacts and implications across the world and reflects on the different experiences.

This book draws on comparative and international political economy to explore alternative options for future economic development in the wake of COVID-19. Covering all major infrastructures of contemporary capitalism affected by the pandemic, it analyses the impacts of the crisis on our global socio-economic-political systems.

Using a new firm-level dataset on private and listed firms from 20 countries, we document five stylized facts on market power in global markets. First, competition has declined around the world, measured as a moderate increase in average firm markups during 2000- 2015. Second, the markup increase is driven by already high-markup firms (top decile of the markup distribution) that charge increasing markups. Third, markups increased mostly among advanced economies but not in emerging markets. Fourth, there is a non-monotonic relation between firm size and markups that is first decreasing and then increasing. Finally, the increase is mostly driven by increases within incumbents and also by market share reallocation towards high-markup entrants.