KPMG director of public policy Mark Essex explains how careful planning and tactical nous are pivotal to how companies navigate their preparations for Brexit, comparing the road to Brexit with a keirin cycle race
The ‘keirin’ – an Olympic cycle race designed to baffle TV audiences every four years – is not the most obvious metaphor for Brexit. Six riders wobble behind an electric bicycle for five laps of the track before a brief and chaotic dash for the line (actually, it probably sounds familiar to anyone who’s followed EU negotiations in recent years).
In this instance however, imagine the riders are not member states but companies preparing for the UK’s exit from the EU and you start to see my point: Brexit is both a competition between companies as well as a race that requires speed, skill and tactical nous.
But why a competitive process between companies? Surely Brexit is a political process that will deliver the same set of outcomes to all? Yes, but only to a point. With the triggering of Article 50 last month, companies face an incredibly compressed timeframe in which to prepare for Brexit – a mere 730 days – and have to compete for scarce resources to prepare for a potential cliff-edge at the end of that period.
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