Foreword
The past decade was characterised by dramatic change and widespread uncertainty; rapid technological advances; fluctuating consumer confidence; and intense global competition, notably from China and India. The result has been a more complex and demanding operating environment for executive teams.
All of these factors are profoundly destabilising – add in the effects on capital markets of one-off events such as the Asian financial crisis, the bursting of the dot-com bubble, September 11th, SARS and the Iraq conflict and it’s easy to understand why volatility has become a constant.
The key questions are – how do market volatility and external factors affect companies in the UK? Are UK-listed businesses more exposed than their counterparts around the world? And if so, what can they do to prosper in this environment?
