I am a member of the Women in Business network run by Alexis Bowater and Clare Baker. Each month, they invite interesting speakers to their Plymouth and Exeter gatherings. In recent months they have put me in the room with activists from the plastic free movement in Exeter, the head of the new business school at Marjons and now Donna Kehoe from the Bank of England.
Donna is a regional agent and her role is to both explain the Bank’s thoughts and comments to the local business community and to gather intelligence from the local business community and feed it back.
Unsurprisingly, Brexit had to be mentioned several times. There is no precedent for a country detaching itself from its largest trading partner that can be used for predictions. The Bank of England is still working on the assumption that there will be a deal and that the transition with be smooth, but the outcome, even in this best case scenario, is a net negative. With the combination of Brexit related uncertainty, which is itself fueling volatility in sterling and a global trend of slowdown there is no swift resolution in sight. In the event of a “no deal” departure being pushed through, both employment and output are expected to fall sharply.
Sadly nobody had managed to ask “what can we do to mitigate the impact on our businesses?” before I had to dash.
The good news is that deep recessions have been survived before and they are often the times when small businesses come into their own.
My lovely friend Ann McCluskey commented when I posted this on Facebook: It would be understandable to become despondent, dispirited, and to feel the heavy weight of despair. Ever the pragmatist/optimist – let’s acknowledge & accept what we can & can’t control……letting go of what/who we can’t. In adversity, the power of creativity & transformation is huge….if we are minded to see the opportunities for positive change. Sowing seeds of hope will gradually germinate into vibrant green shoots of recovery.
The Depression, times of war, financial crisis, recession, austerity – lived through and moved on. Change on a macro & micro level is the ‘new normal’ – the challenge for each of us is to adapt without losing sight of who we are or selling our souls.
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