Brexit - Making your business resilient

We are all aware that the process of ‘Brexit’ is likely to involve considerable change whatever the short term and longer term outcomes. The challenge for business owners and senior managers is deciding how to prioritise and plan.

Trying to anticipate the more likely Brexit opportunities and threats is one obvious course of action and we will be looking at different aspects of ‘Brexit planning’ in subsequent articles. However, our overarching view is that senior managers should be focusing on how to make their businesses resilient no matter how Brexit plays out. In practical terms this means evaluating current financing, resources and commercial relationships and deciding how these support longer term ambitions. This approach has the advantage of helping maintain a proactive and longer term stance in an environment where the pressure will encourage a reactive, short-term mind set.

More immediately, it is important to understand that Brexit really involves two aspects. Much of the current focus, understandably, is on the Withdrawal Agreement – whether there will be one and, if so, what form it will take. It is important to appreciate that negotiations concerning our future trading relationships with the EU and with other non-EU countries can only take place in earnest after March 2019 and, unless there is a ‘no deal’ Brexit, will be conducted in the context of a transition period that is likely to last through to the end of 2020 and in some sectors (such as agriculture) such arrangements may extend over a much longer period. Essentially, change is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future; business planning that only focuses on the impact of Brexit (whether ‘deal or no deal’) will not be sufficient.

We will be producing a series of articles in the coming weeks and months on different aspects of business planning in the current environment. Some will be sector-specific and some will look at Brexit in particular; all will focus on the practical decisions facing senior managers and to keep these focused, wherever possible, on long term goals.

In the meantime, we thought it would be helpful to identify key contacts who can help regarding particular aspects of business planning:

Regulatory and compliance: Matt Rowley

Land/property-backed finance: Stephen Proctor

Agricultural sector: Stephen Proctor

Agricultural sector - disputes: Paul Burkinshaw

Supply chain contracts: Matt Rowley

Supply chain contracts - disputes: Richard Hugill

Employment planning: Marie Horner