Mindset Audits and Geopolitics

I'm hosting an Executive Summary dinner at the Goring Hotel in London tonight on Geopolitics and the impact it's having on operational resilience for CEOs. We have some brilliant minds coming - from former cabinet members to chairs of some of the largest organisations.

Where the debate is really going to go (I think) is how to get Europe's business leaders to be bolder.

Depending on your sources, of the world’s 100 largest companies by market cap, the US has 63 firms and China 11 in that 100. The UK has 5, Germany, France and Switzerland - 3 each.

Half of America's giants didn't exist 50 years ago. Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Tesla etc. Built from scratch, scaled fast and now they set the rules.

Europe hasn't built a global tech leader since SAP. It's in big trouble because its leaders have not been bold enough - and it's now paying the price for its cautious mindset.

If Europe were a car maker, it would be obsessed with building the world's most advanced seatbelt - a mandatory, committee-designed 800-point safety harness that takes 3 days to put on. Exceptionally safe, but by the time you'd strapped yourself in to buy a pint of milk, the shops have shut.

Mindset is everything. America and China are optimised for ambition. Europe is optimised for risk avoidance.

It has become so good at not losing, it has forgotten how to win - and now with the weight of war, inflation, interest rates and a shifting plate of power to face, it is struggling.

Stephen Fry said something brilliant in his programme about Americans - they by definition risk-takers. Their ancestors got on a boat to an unknown land in search of fortune and glory. But Europeans stayed home.

While Europe has been building regulatory frameworks - 13,000 for digital services alone - America's been building companies. While we've been perfecting compliance committees, China's been perfecting scale.

As you know, I run growth audits and board assessments on companies. This is going to sound batty, but I think a mindset audit wouldn't be a bad idea for companies trying to tap into why they're not moving.

So my challenge to you today - would you ever run a mindset audit in your company? Is that a stupid idea?

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