Optimism and turbulence make for a mixed outlook in 2018

Businesses face profound uncertainty this year due to an increasingly personalised and assertive political leadership, which is shaping and perhaps exaggerating the perception of the risks that industries face. That's the conclusion that Control Risks draws from its RiskMap 2018, noting that nationalist sentiment and digital populism underpin and yet potentially undermine the balancing act of political leaders. Wherever they stand on the spectrum of liberty and control, leaders cannot ignore this reality.

For the automotive sector and business in general, this comes at a time of fierce competition not only for new markets but also over the very rules of the game. Technology, the great indiscriminate enabler, is subjecting political and business leaders – and societies for that matter – to relentless pressure. Authoritarian governments worried about control, or democracies concerned about privacy and democratic integrity, have all been outpaced by innovators racing on the nitrous oxide of technology.