4. Week in the life of… - Career Discovery Xcelerator

International Business & Strategic Foresight

Monday

You have your regular morning meeting in the economic analysis group. Macro is on the agenda.
Jobs data, both in the US and continental Europe, remain relatively strong and consumer activity, while a tad more hesitant, remains solid.
Businesses seem to express some concern in the manufacturing sectors, but there is no such gloominess visible in the services sector.
The support of the fiscal stimulus programs in both the US and Europe still seems to make up for the loss of consumer purchasing power from higher inflation.

tuesday

You compare notes with the financial management team. They have reached similar conclusions to yours but are more focused on policy rates.
Late last year almost everyone agreed that Fed rates would “pivot” somewhat into 2023. But the latest statement from central bank representatives suggest no hurry to bring rates back down again until inflation is more clearly under control. So, the firm's short-term funding costs will remain relatively high. The multinational you work for gets part of its revenue from the US. The finance department is considering hedging some of the USD exposure. The conclusion so far is that there is no need. US financial markets are still on a roll and flows into USD remain strong.

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday and Thursday are global strategy days, and you meet up with the head of the Asian division.
The expected rebound in the Chinese economy after the re-opening of the economy has apparently not materialized and demand for the firm's products in that market still looks weakish. Will this imply contagion to the rest of Asia?
Another issue is market positioning and your experts from market intelligence have come along to the meeting. Most of the data they've analyzed suggest that the firm should concentrate more on its core products and put less emphasis on the high end of the product offering.

Friday