Productivity & Trade Briefs

Many of the corporate board monitoring costs can be drastically reduced, if not eliminated, by using blockchain to establish trust between directors and shareholders.

Corporate communications teams are being called on to reinforce their company’s reputation in the face of a skeptical public, concludes a report by The Conference Board, Corporate Communications Practices: 2018 Edition. The survey covers more than 100 publicly traded companies.

Market shake-outs – as typical of creative destruction cycles, even those with “Chinese characteristics” – should yield better operating conditions over the longer-term, especially for competitive firms. At this critical juncture, executives need to understand the gamut of potential China exposures facing their companies – both positive and negative – so that they can position their companies to exploit associated opportunities and mitigate risks.

The economy is likely to keep growing above its long-term 2 percent trend in the next 1-2 years, but a very tight labor market and higher interest rate are likely to pressure stock prices.

Positive social impact, the result of a company’s efforts to do good directed towards solutions to important problems, is more impactful when a company integrates those efforts with their core competencies and through their products and services. Many corporations’ efforts have been adjacent to the company’s business, or “bolted on.” A “built-in” ethos, where the company works to create value for both the bottom line and the outside world has strong long-term success implications for both.

There’s an astounding number of nonprofits in the world today. We’re talking millions. In many ways, that’s a good thing: It signals not only that there is an ever-increasing number of ways to get involved in social good, but also that people are standing up and trying to make a difference. And it’s no secret that the world needs this kind of social action now more than ever.

2/3 of CEOs believe that digital transformation is a significant enabler for their sustainability strategy and they actively seek opportunities from digitization to improve sustainability performance and to discover more sustainable business models. The application of digital trans-formation and innovation for new more sustainable business models finds wide acceptance among company leaders. Now is the right time to develop proposals for new products and services and new revenue models.

It’s impossible to avoid the furor surrounding cryptocurrencies these days. Looking beyond the price fluctuations of crypto markets, examining the blockchain infrastructure that supports the currencies is a fascinating exercise. The use of blockchain in companies has some interesting implications for citizenship and philanthropy. Blockchain could add a level of transparency and authenticity to corporate practices and resulting communications that could help to rebuild trust in business.

The reform and empowerment of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has the potential to dramatically disrupt many traditional partnership approaches MNCs have been using in China for many years – including co-investment arrangements that have become popular recently.