Abstract:

While the industrialised countries of Western Europe have managed prodigious feats of production and growth during the past 25 years, current difficulties would seem to indicate that 'unexpected visitors' have somehow disturbed the rules of the game, putting European societies into a critical situation. With regard to business, one could easily list and agree on a number of factors - such as chronic inflation, low growth, unemployment, high energy costs, low productivity, bureaucracy, government intervention, etc. - which mark dangerous slopes for managers to negotiate, testing the nerve and stamina of even the most skillful. What is more difficult to determine is whether business, and the society within which it functions, can adjust to these structural changes and turn them into opportunities. If not, we could be on the way to persistent under-performance and retrenchment, and should prepare for worse to come.