The End of a Thirty-Year Gamble
That stiff breeze arrived in the form of a global pandemic. Suddenly, a lockdown in one obscure city could bring a car factory on another continent to a grinding halt. Then came the geopolitical spats, the sanctions, and the rather chilling realisation that the things we rely on, from microchips to medicines, were being made in places that might not be so friendly tomorrow.
To me, this marks the end of a thirty-year gamble. The C-suite is finally waking up from its obsession with pure efficiency and asking a far more sensible question. Instead of "Where is it cheapest?", they are now asking, "Where is it safest?". The answer, it seems, is closer to home, or at least in countries that are unlikely to turn off the taps on a whim. This shift, which the strategists have dubbed "friend-shoring", is not just a minor course correction. It is a fundamental rewiring of global trade.