Global business leaders including top Scots say 'no going back' to pre-Covid world - new book

More than two dozen global business leaders, including Stagecoach founder Sir Brian Souter and investment veteran Martin Gilbert, have predicted that there will be no return to normality despite hopes of a Covid vaccine.

Atholl Duncan is the author of Leaders in Lockdown, which is available on Amazon, Waterstones and WH Smith.

Amid the news earlier this week of a breakthrough vaccine that could begin to be rolled out within weeks, the 28 business leaders believe it is unlikely that the world will see a return to the pre-virus world of business.

“There is no going back,” was the clear message from the men and women who took part in the Leaders in Lockdown project, which is the focus of a new book published today.

Their insights were captured in in-depth interviews over the first 100 days of lockdown.

The project concluded with seven themes – the new age of purpose, the new world of work, tackling inequality, global cooperation, resilience, resetting the supply chain and maximising potential – for “res-setting business strategies and re-setting society”.

The leaders argued that every long held business belief had been thrown out the window by the coronavirus crisis and governments’ handling of the fallout.

Some claimed Covid-19 highlighted how trickle-down economics does not work. They thought the virus exposed the selfishness of countries rather than our ability to be compassionate internationalists.

Black Isle Group chair and the book’s author, Atholl Duncan, said: “The insights of the ‘Leaders in Lockdown’ are true gold dust for all who are still struggling to come to terms with the short-term and long-term implications of the virus. Our worlds have been changed forever by the pandemic.”

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