New Directions in Business Leadership: Talk Takeaways

Deirdre Mendez, Director, Center for Global Business at McCombs

CGB Board of Advisors member Matt Hansen and Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Edward Schumacher-Matos discussed leadership trends resulting from the pandemic. Hansen is founder of Financial Services Capital Partners, and Schumacher-Matos is director of the Edward R. Murrow Center at Tufts University. Some takeaways:

Current Trends

• Counter to the prior European trend toward increased home-country investment and entrenchment, the COVID crisis has spawned pan-Europe financial and military solutions, and Brexit negotiations have also encouraged collaboration among EU members.
• There is also consolidation in Asia, and to some degree Latin America, on the financial and defense fronts, due to the pandemic and US leadership vacuum.

Leadership

• Financial leadership has been exemplified by JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, whose detailed understanding of the company’s position was a stabilizing factor during the crisis. On the political front, Angela Merkel has used diplomatic skills, rather than hard power, to lead Germany and the EU through the crisis.

Leadership challenges for the future

• Managing monopolistic practices as well as the social effects of digital media
• Developed countries’ simultaneous need for and resistance to immigration