From the desk of Lord Bilimoria, CBI President

The advent of Omicron is a reminder of three things. First, we should remain humble before the virus. Equally, we must learn to live with it. Second, without concerted action to make vaccines available worldwide, we all remain vulnerable to variants; threatening our health and wealth. Third, Omicron’s spread exemplifies global interconnectedness, highlighting the need for businesses’ resilience to survive future shocks.

This virus is here to stay. Business has had to adapt to survive but now needs to thrive. One of the greatest business lessons from this Covid period is the importance of diversification. Firms which have diversified their revenue and supply chains were able to successfully weather the storm and embed resilience. So how can businesses take these lessons forward?

Putting it frankly that means being bold and planning for success. At CBI, we call it seizing the moment.

As we can see from today’s CBI economic forecast the contribution from exports to UK