Why geopolitics matter more now for corporations than past decades
Multinational companies with global exposure have been bearing the brunt of geopolitical conflict in recent years, from the Russia-Ukraine War to the deadly military skirmishes between Israel and Hamas. Global Guardian CEO Dale Buckner — a retired U.S. Army Colonel and former Green Beret — outlines how corporations should be more cognizant of geopolitical risks and the dangers it presents to staff working overseas.
"If you think you're protecting your firm, your people because you have insurance, travel insurance, or you have legacy duty of care provider who provides intelligence and alerts and does medical evac, read the fine print of the restrictions," Buckner tells Yahoo Finance. "They do not cover nor do they operate in combat zones, natural disaster, or terrorist attacks."
Buckner also comments on the evacuation strategies underway to transport clients out of the Gaza region.
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Video Transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: We spoke to you, Dale, early on when Russia invaded Ukraine. You talk about the evacuations you had to do in Afghanistan. It's certainly been a busy year or so for you. And I wonder what the conversations are that you're having with your corporate clients about safety and how they're reconsidering where they operate throughout the world.
DALE BUCKNER: So I think, here's really-- there's two or three key takeaways here. Number one, if you're a CEO or C-suite member or a board member, geopolitics now matter in a way they haven't in decades. That's number one. Number two, if you think that you're protecting your firm, your people because you have insurance, travel insurance or you have a legacy duty of care provider who provides intelligence and alerts and does medical evac, read the fine print of the restrictions.
They do not cover nor do they operate in combat zones, natural disaster, or terrorist attacks, meaning they really have no coverage whatsoever. I think that reality as you look at the pace of events, global disruptive events, the pace over the last decade is there's more every year, they're increasing in violence, and they're creating more exposure for the tech sector, the finance sector, the manufacturing sector, so on, and so forth.
Ultimately, these platforms were not built for the world we live in. And if you don't make material changes so that you can operate to deal with this level of violence, you're simply uncovered. And it's a reality that corporate America and the West is facing right now that there's a real pivot required moving forward.
AKIKO FUJITA: Dale, finally, you mentioned at the top that you're expecting the airspace to be completely shut down over the next few days. What are those next few days going to look like for you as you try to get your clients out?
DALE BUCKNER: Yeah. Simply put, we will pivot. We do have a that we're executing daily right now to Jordan. We have to hope that the Jordanians or the Israelis don't cut that off. It's viable now. I do anticipate between the two of air or ground, we will lose the air option first.
If we do, we will simply pivot, and we will start running large convoys of 500 plus people at a time. And we will execute the two primary routes to the two primary crossing sites, get our clients to Oman, put them in hotels and safe homes in some cases, and then move them commercially from Oman to around the world.
