In a rapidly changing economic environment, businesses are realizing that to survive they must reinvent themselves, and to stay competitive in an increasingly global economy, the infrastructure that supports our industry must remain a top priority.
This need has been highlighted by two recent publications, Marsh & McLennan Companies' 2015 Global Risks Report for the World Economic Forum and the Brookings Institution’s Campaign 2016: Eight Big Issues the (U.S.) Presidential Candidates Should Address.
In the Global Risks Report, the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, wrote, ”Ongoing political, economic, social, environmental and technological developments are challenging many of our underlying assumptions. Across every sector of society, decision-makers are struggling to cope with the heightened complexity and uncertainty that results from the world’s highly interconnected nature and the increased speed of change.”
Many leaders who have been following fairly similar business models finally have recognized that those who may look at the business model with new eyes and new ways of thinking are likely to bring new ideas, which will break the model and cause rapid disruption or displacement. Examining, identifying, and explaining our industry’s basic beliefs create value, both economic and operational. If we can describe these ideas clearly, we can then, as Jeff Shane of IATA says, “reverse flip” our policies, procedures or operational foundations. In other words, we can reframe our beliefs, turning our assumptions on their heads, by looking at radical new hypotheses to see what their impacts might be.
In the Brookings report, a strong case is made that closing the infrastructure investment gap would be a boost to job creation. Such enhanced investment could decrease overhead costs to business, while efficiently moving people and goods, could better connect households, and could contribute to reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. However, if we need to invest roughly $150 billion a year in transportation, port, water sewer and energy projects, we are unlikely to do so without finding a new funding paradigm.