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What is a "new world order" or a "multipolar world", and how does it change business decisions?

Answer by: , founder of Strategic Intelligence Lab · Updated: · לגרסה בעברית

Short answer: A multipolar world is one in which no single power sets the rules for everyone. The United States, China, India, the Gulf and Europe each run their own trade, payment and technology systems, and businesses have to operate in several systems at once. The business implication: assumptions that held for thirty years (one market, one currency, one cheap supplier) are no longer a basis for planning.

The longer view

In a world with one superpower, efficiency won: you produce where it is cheapest and sell where it is most profitable. In a multipolar world, resilience wins: two suppliers instead of one, two settlement currencies, two shipping routes to the same destination. This costs more, which is why whoever understands the map can choose where to pay for resilience and where not to.

Israel has an advantage and a disadvantage here in the same breath. The advantage: it sits on the seam between Asia, Africa and Europe, exactly where the new trade corridors meet. The disadvantage: it depends on a single alliance more than any other country in the region, in a world where alliances are becoming more transaction and less commitment.

This is a reading through the seven layers of The Blue Pumpkin, the method of Dr. Bella Barda-Bareket.

What to do tomorrow morning

Go through the strategic plan and mark every place where "the global market" appears in the singular. At each one, ask: which system are we actually talking about?

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