logo
episode-header-image
May 2024
32m 32s

The End of Free Trade

Boston Consulting Group BCG
About this episode

How should business leaders prepare to do business in a new new world order? BCG’s Nikolaus Lang prepares executives to completely rethink trade in a multipolar future, in which they must navigate different geopolitical, social, and environmental considerations. Finding the least expensive place to manufacture a product to sell to customers across the globe won’t work anymore. Instead, companies will have to operate within new trade blocs. Organization structure, supply chains, customer expectations…much will have to change. 

Help Us Imagine the Future--Send Us Your Ideas or Questions 

What major changes or disruptions do YOU see on the horizon? 

Please email us the future scenario you’d like us to explore. Or, send us a question you might have for GENE or about working with GENE.  


Email it to: imaginethis@bcg.com


We will pick our favorites and explore them with GENE in an upcoming episode of Imagine This. 


Learn More:  

Nikolaus Lang: on.bcg.com/3JF4CYD 


International Trade: https://on.bcg.com/3QnA4hS 

 

Which Economies Benefit the Most from Free Trade Agreements?: on.bcg.com/4dfwhgn 


Jobs, National Security, and the Future of Trade: https://on.bcg.com/3xXY050 


GenAI on GenAI: https://lnk.to/bcg-genai-on-genai-series-link04



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Up next
Oct 1
How Will AI Revamp Marketing—and the Role of CMOs?
AI is creating greater customer personalization, but a far more fundamental change is coming. Over the next decade, it will break down silos across organizations and give CMOs always-on access to better, deeper, and far more comprehensive information. In this episode, BCG’s Janet ... Show More
30m 33s
Sep 17
AI Agents and the 'Everywhere All at Once' Sales Team
Too often, a company’s sales strategy is limited by finite resources. Even the largest multinational corporations have to make tough decisions about where to deploy their sales teams. But as they grow more sophisticated, AI agents are expected to be capable of reaching and intera ... Show More
36m 8s
Sep 3
BCG Presents: The So What from BCG
Who Wants to Be a CEO? The role of the CEO is both powerful and punishing. Christine Barton, BCG’s CEO Advisory lead in North America, explores how to make the job more fulfilling. It starts with clarity of purpose, building the right leadership team, and minimizing activities th ... Show More
24m 57s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2024
How Globalization Has Changed Strategic Planning
In 1992, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. signed NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the global business landscape began transforming. Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, studies how companies have adjusted their strategies to that disrupti ... Show More
28m 28s
Jan 2025
How did global trade start?
As US president-elect Donald Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, global trade has become a contentious issue. Mr Trump has threatened to impose tariffs – that is taxes at the border – on all goods imported from a host of nations, including neighbours Canada and Mexico as ... Show More
23m 8s
May 2025
Navigating the New World of Tariffs and Trade
Global trade is entering a new phase marked by unpredictability. Marc Gilbert and Michael McAdoo discuss how companies can respond by building supply chain flexibility, strengthening scenario planning, and enhancing their understanding of geopolitical developments. Learn More:Mar ... Show More
21m 52s
Apr 2025
The End of Globalization?
The rollout of the Trump administration’s tariffs has rattled markets, prompting questions of what these protectionist policies mean for the global economy moving forward. Two top experts on globalization join FP Live to share their thoughts. Elisabeth Braw is an FP columnist and ... Show More
45m 25s
Sep 2024
The Great Disconnect with Marco Magnani
In The Great Disconnect: Hopes and Fears After the Excess of Globalization, Marco Magnani explores the factors that are driving the crisis of globalization we are currently experiencing.Magnani teaches international economics at LUISS University in Rome and Università Cattolica i ... Show More
27m 37s
Apr 2025
Mark Dow: Tariffs, Trade, and Trump - [Making Markets, EP.59]
My guest today for the second time is Mark Dow. Mark is one of my favourite thinkers on Macro, and his experience at the IMF, the US Treasury, and Wall Street gives him a truly unique perspective for the current moment. As we went through one of the biggest market and policy uphe ... Show More
53m 20s
Feb 2025
The Death of Ecommerce Jobs? AI vs. Humans Explained
AI is rapidly changing the ecommerce landscape, automating tasks once handled by humans and raising the question—are ecommerce jobs at risk? In this episode, we dive deep into the future of AI in ecommerce, breaking down how AI is transforming everything from inventory management ... Show More
37m 51s
Dec 2024
Can Trump's Tariffs Work?
In today's video we examine Donald Trump's plan to rebalance global trade using tariffs, try to understand the issues with international trade that have been pushing the United States and other countries in this protectionist direction, and if tariffs can be expected to improve t ... Show More
24m 25s
May 2024
Reinventing Distributed Commerce with AI
App-tracking rules closed the door on user-tracking and targeted ads, but AI opened up new channels of engagement and personalization that previously weren’t possible. Commerce infrastructure company Fermat ushers businesses into this new era of online retail. CEO and co-founder ... Show More
32m 39s
Aug 13
President Trump is upending global trade as we know it. What comes next?
”The global trading system as we have known it is dead.”Those are the words of former US Trade Representative Michael Froman.He’s now President of the Council on Foreign Relations. If the era of global free trade is over, the question is…what comes next? For sponsor-free episodes ... Show More
7m 17s