UBS Entrepreneur Compass

Safeguarding supply chains
The world of supply chain management is changing rapidly, fueled by several major developments. Professional, forward-looking management will assure that your supply chain runs smoothly, also unearthing opportunities.
Building crisis resilience
With the unfolding climate crisis and everyday cyber-security threats, the future is less certain. It’s a good time to make your business more resilient before the next crisis arrives.
Advancing diversity, equity & inclusion
Making diversity, equity, and inclusion an opportunity is a key challenge. It means creating a work environment where every person matters and everyone can contribute to the goals of your business.
Leveraging digitalization
Digital technologies are powerful enablers of value creation and disruption. Entrepreneurs need to work on strategic and operational levels to transform the business, to realize the potential of digital technologies and to stay ahead.
Anticipating consumer trends
With consumer preferences changing rapidly, entrepreneurs must develop a talent for trend spotting – anticipating how customers’ likes are evolving.

As an entrepreneur, you tend to spend all your time managing day-to-day operations. There’s little time for strategy. Yet as the world emerges from COVID-19 and inflation spikes, the 2020s are likely to be challenging. For that reason, we have written this report – in the hope that it will help you to think ahead to the issues you might face.

How did we select which five challenges to focus on? We canvassed entrepreneurs, as well as other thought leaders and industry practitioners to discover which they thought would be the most pressing. Specifically, the five challenges we investigate are:

Supply Chain

Supply chain

While the COVID-19 pandemic may be fading, its impact on supply chains will be longer lasting. The supply shock that started in China, and the demand shock that followed as the global economy shut down, exposed supply chain vulnerabilities. The challenge for companies now? Make supply chains more resilient without damaging competitiveness.

Managing complex supply chains often requires entrepreneurs to hire supply chain professionals – particularly at a time when increasing automation puts a premium on specialist expertise. Beyond hiring a professional, our report highlights five broad ways to improve supply chain performance, effectively increasing your business’s growth potential.

The entrepreneur’s view:

“To create a herbal liqueur of the highest quality, we therefore understood even from early on that it required a perfect harmony of ingredients and that we would have to depend on others to achieve our goal – first and foremost, our global network of suppliers.”

Conte Niccolò Branca
President and Managing Director, Gruppo Branca International

How UBS navigates the challenge:

“During the pandemic, we faced additional challenges as we needed to enable our teams to work remotely. Because of the disruptions, we also had to source quickly and sometimes locally. But we were able to manage these challenges effectively by leveraging strong vendor relationships, and rapid go to market with alternative sources of supply identified.”

Bhavna Rai
Head of Supply Chain Sustainability & Regional Procurement, UBS

Crisis resilience

Just as the COVID-19 pandemic fades in many countries, so geopolitical instability has returned to Europe. Even before the pandemic era, the 21^st Century had seen the Dotcom Crisis, Global Financial Crisis and escalating extreme weather events. In the minds of some commentators, the regularity of crises results from an interconnected world without circuit breakers. For entrepreneurs, crisis resilience will become increasingly important.

Depending on the type of crisis and its severity, the commercial impact for the business may be more or less acute. What’s more, different sectors and businesses can be affected to varying degrees. When crisis strikes, the more resilient your business the better.

The entrepreneur’s view:

“Personally, I have a lot of resilience data points to reference when my world is falling apart. Surviving the experience of hiking in Alaska in waist-deep snow during the ultra-crazy hard endurance race IDITAROD – a 1,000-mile dog sled race completed on foot – is one example. When I reach my breaking point, I can refer to one of these past resilience data points in my mind and often muster enough fortitude to continue pushing. I know that if I could get through such a tough moment then, I can get through this crisis too. It’s all about perspective and mindset.”

Joe De Sena
CEO and founder, Spartan Race

“Going through crisis is part of the game. It will only be a matter of time before you have to ride one out. At the end of the day, minimizing the impact of disruptions to your company’s financial health during a crisis is a balancing act. On the one hand, it’s crucial that you remain agile and ready to react quickly to challenges in real time. On the other, it’s important to have systems in place that continuously strengthen the company’s financial resilience well before a crisis hits.”

Alvin Abednego
Director of Sales and Marketing, Royal Corporation

How UBS navigates the challenge

“During crises, communication is key. Leaders must communicate transparently, frequently and clearly. Be urgent but take the time to gather enough information first to provide transparency and a level of confidence that the company is in control. Reassure your clients and employees, but make sure you’re not unintentionally misleading them. Be realistic yet positive,”

Marsha Askins
Group Head Communications and Branding, UBS

Diversity, equity and inclusion

Digitalization

Consumer trends

To discover high-level insights about how to tackle the five challenges, download the executive summary or full report by connecting with us. Would you like to receive regular insights, exchange with other entrepreneurs, connect with thought leaders or attend events on your chosen topics? If so, join our exclusive entrepreneur networks.

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UBS Entrepreneur Compass

Safeguarding supply chains

Building crisis resilience

Advancing diversity, equity & inclusion

Leveraging digitalization

Anticipating consumer trends