All change

2021 will present a raft of new challenges. Are you ready to accept them?

- CHRIS AYLETT

Welcome to an exciting new decade, when businesses see change as both a challenge and an opportunity for positive action. We face change on a scale unseen in most lifetimes as the world, urgently and determinedly, rises to meet environmental and economic challenges.

Opportunities will arise when the UK becomes an independent nation on January 1, eager to make productive trade deals around the world. With such freedom comes challenging new limits and regulations, which we must learn to live with if we are to grow our businesses.

Motorsport is relatively secure, having taken some action already – major series restricting budgets and offering more value to sponsors, audiences and participants. We have six months or so to rebuild revenues to reasonable levels as our sport becomes re-established after the pandemic. The next challenge will come in nine years, when many countries where motorsport is well established ban the use of internal combustion engines in new vehicles.

I expect the current survival strategy, focussed on cash security and restoring revenues, is likely to dictate business decisions and investments throughout 2021. I understand that motorsport revenues in most major markets will have reduced by at least 33 per cent on 2019, though in hospitality and circuit operations this could be as high as 80 per cent.

The UK, as it recovers from the pandemic, where the speed and effectiveness of vaccines is critical, faces major changes in attitudes of society, international trade, employment and human behaviour, and business leaders must move quickly to respond to these challenges and effect change to survive and prosper.

Competitive nature