“Our industries facing the world” is the opening theme of the Global Industrie trade fair, which opens its doors this Monday, March 30th in Paris. An unusual choice as testimonies of supply chain difficulties have multiplied by the dozens in recent months, overshadowed by emblematic cases such as Nexperia chips and Chinese rare earths. What are the consequences of the war in Iran on certain raw materials and sub-components of the chemical industry in particular?
“Happy globalization is over. Interdependencies are being exploited by power games and this has completely unpredictable consequences on business climates, not to mention the economic model of companies,” comments Thomas Friang, the executive director of the Institute of Geopolitics at Essec Business School.
Indeed, this institution now aims to train future executives to be capable of developing businesses in a politically charged business environment. The main objective? Avoiding the paralysis of a company in a constantly evolving world. “It’s very complicated for a board of directors or for a Comex to make strategic or structural decisions in such a context, inevitably we are encouraged to have a certain degree of caution,” testifies a prominent French business leader.
