As Brexit manoeuvres into position many around the globe release a sigh of relief while standing at the front of the queue for the exciting potential of doing new business with the UK. While others inside, and outside, of the UK are still scratching their heads thinking “How did this happen? Why are we leaving? and, Will Great Britain ever be the same again?”
Whether you were for, or against, democracy has spoken and rightfully, we are doing what the small majority of people asked for!
23rd June 2016 was the date almost 52% of the UK decided that packing our bags and leaving the EU would be the best step forward in making the UK a ‘Greater Britain’ on 31st January 2020. Somewhat different to when we had a referendum in 1975 and 67% decided we should stay! It seemed a rocky relationship from the start, as we first applied in 1961 and were subsequently vetoed by the French government twice, in 1963 and 1967, until finally being given the green light in 1969 for negotiations to finally allow us to become a member into the European Communities (as it was once known) in 1973. 12 Years to get in and 4 years to get out, already a positive sign that we get things done much quicker without Europe, even though it did appear that Brexit negotiations lasted millennia.
Firmly embracing that stiff upper lip, we may take a while to get in but are pretty consistent when in position, and we are certainly quicker at pulling out when things don’t feel right for us.
However, when it comes to business, although we have sold some Great British brands such as Rolls Royce, Cadbury’s (I twice sold a car to Mrs Cadbury), Weetabix, Jaguar-Land Rover, Branston Pickle, Camelot, Boots, Raleigh and Asda, to purchasers around the world, we can still smile in delight at the global impact 20 of our key brands have in the world’s top 500 companies. We sit 6th on the world stage for the amount of business done by our leading brands, falling behind these 5 world leaders, who hold the represented numbers of businesses within: USA (126), China (111), Japan (52), Germany (32), & France (28).
We can surely class ourselves as a ‘Cool Britannia’ when these giants help us hold our place on the world’s business stage:
8. BP (12 in 2016), 49. Prudential (56), 90. HSBC (88), 102. Tesco (92), 143. Aviva (90),
158. Vodafone (149), 172. Legal & General (49), 189. Lloyds (121),265. SSE (269),
278. Rio Tinto (316), 290. GlaxoSmithKline (273), 303. J Sainsbury (310),318. Centrica (286).
336. Barclays (284), 377. BT (346), 413. Compass Group (387), 449. Anglo-American (-)
453. British American Tobacco (-), 460. IAG (435).
All in all, not bad considering that there’s 1,439,323,776 people in China (18.47% of the world’s population), and America has 331,002,651 (4.25% of the world’s population) as well as drones and the CIA to help gain business (just a thought) then at a mere 67,886,001 (0.87 % of the world’s population) in retrospect, taking population into account of the leading 5 then we are a significant player on the world business market and would probably sit top 3.
Be proud of your country and be grateful of what we have. It’s easy to take things for granted and speak with a negative tongue, but we’re not doing too bad. The world’s eyes are upon us and together we can achieve greater things together, for the benefit of all, given the freedom and opportunity.
After all, WE ARE ‘Cool Britannia’.
