Strength, Weakness, Opportunity or Threat?

Rather like the majority of us I suspect, I hit my bed in the wee small hours with barely a sense of how the Country might vote on Brexit.

The drowsiness following a restless night soon disappeared as I reached for the iPhone at crack of dawn to see that we were Out.

The markets have acted as one would expect – sterling is off a cliff and the FTSE down 8% at time of writing. Cameron’s on to Pickfords to organise a moving date. Looks like Corbyn’s number’s up.

The Leave campaigners will inevitably be overjoyed that their voice has been heard – but there may well be a slight sense of trepidation at today’s predictable instability.

Clearly the voice of the Country has been heard, but we always knew that a Leave vote would be filled with unpredictability, with little in the way of hard re-assurance from their campaign leaders.

Of course this is day one – and it’ll take a little while for knee-jerk reactions to the decision to die down (there will probably be more short-term gloom to come over the next few days). But it’s only after a period of time that the full effect of the decision will play out.

Given that we live in a global environment, it seems strange to me that we would want to cast off from our neighbours and plot a new (and very much unchartered) course – especially as those likely to take the helm seemed to have little in the way of a plan to make sure that their passengers would be kept safe from the rigours of the journey.

Exceptional self-confidence combined with a combination of Dunkirk spirit and “it’ll be alright on the night” optimism has clearly played out well with the UK audience – but attitudes will change rapidly unless a strong sense of future clarity emerges rapidly.

Importantly that’s not just about how we plot our way forward. The UK’s departure from the EU is likely to fuel those in EU countries who feel as disenfranchised as the British did, meaning that there’s a significant chance that sticking a finger up to Europe will potentially be more like removing it from the dyke for our ex-cousins – and trying to manage any potential fall-out from that as well as keeping the UK safe, financially strong and, potentially together, will inevitably prove to be a tough task.

If we have faith in our politicians (and actually, given the dialogue about much of this vote being about dissatisfaction with them, regardless of party, that may feel a bit optimistic) then we might be OK.

Only over the next twelve months or so we will see where they lead us. No point in panicking right now.

But whatever happens expect some waves, and hope that it’s not going to be the perfect storm that works its way across Europe, and beyond, creating another recession as deep as the one we’ve only just started to climb out of.

The UK has had its voice heard, and that’s a good thing. But whilst we have clearly answered one question – it’s opened a whole lot more. And some, no doubt, we don’t have answers to yet.

Stuart Pocock is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Observatory International, the leading Global Management Consultancy dedicated to helping Companies maximise their marketing resources.