Global Business in the Age of Destruction and Distraction

When a crisis like a pandemic sweeps through societies, it upends critical structures in health, economics, socioeconomics, institutional cultures, communities, and everyday life. This book examines how a world already stressed by rampant change reacts to a global crisis. It draws on experts that foresee a growing economic inequality as the tech-savvy pull further ahead of those with less access to digital tools, training, or aptitude. Some anticipate big technology firms that will exploit their market advantages and weaponize tools that erode the privacy and autonomy of their users. Some predict that changes exacerbated by the pandemic will result in significant portions of the population benefiting from reforms aimed at racial justice and social equity as critiques of current economic arrangements, and capitalism itself, gain support and policymaker attention. The authors examine the complexities and realities of a world filled with distraction and how focus is diverted during a time of primary technological revolution. These patterns are destroying old thinking models and establishing new paradigms. This conversation takes time to investigate voice, tools, and strategies for coping and remaining relevant in the middle of the whirlwind.