On November 9, America – and the world – woke up to a very different sort of morning. For some (60 million Americans at the very least) it was a jubilant morning. For others, it was a morning of dismay or even despair. For yet others – well, they just got on with their daily lives.

Following the Brexit vote and now Trump’s victory, it would be a foolish person who still wants to be into the game of predicting the future.

None of us has any idea how a Trump presidency will evolve, nor which of his policy statements he will stick by and which will be jettisoned. So how should business – and particularly big business – prepare itself for the new world to come? Here are some suggestions.

First, business leaders must get over the idea that, for business to thrive, it needs stability and predictability. Global political uncertainty is here to stay – no matter how many business leaders stamp their little feet in frustration. The businesses that thrive will be those that learn how to manage in a highly uncertain, highly unpredictable world. Those who continue to demand stability and predictability will fail.

Second, elections are important not just because of who wins but because of what the campaigns themselves tell us about the culture that we live in and the perceptions and aspirations of the public.

Let us just focus on three main themes that emerged during the campaign.  One doesn’t have to agree with these narratives – but they did win the election.

Elections are important because of what the campaigns themselves tell us about the perceptions and aspirations of the public

Business has taken greed to excess. It has captured government through lobbying and through the extortion of favours and special deals in return for campaign contributions. While – sadly – legal, this is now seen as being fundamentally corrupting of our democracies. And neither does this apply only in the US. Malta is not immune to the same charges. Trump gained support because he convinced people that he was too rich to be bought by the wealthy elite.

Globalisation is past its sell-by date. Rather than being a source of peace and widespread prosperity, it is now a tool by which the rich can continue to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and the worker. It is a mechanism by which multinational companies can play off one government against the other and avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Protectionism, not globalisation, is the new mantra. Trump won in traditionally Democratic states because of his promise to defend American jobs against the excesses of globalisation. Voters felt that the Democrats, once ‘the party of the people’, had abandoned them and been complicit in exporting their jobs to China and Mexico.

Immigration is a net negative rather than a net positive. It opens countries to labour competition that encourages a race to the bottom in terms of wages and working conditions. It allows business to import ready-made skilled workers while throwing local people on to the rubbish heap instead of investing in training and re-training them.

Not to mention the security and cultural implications of uncontrolled immigration.

There are many others. But even if we only focus on these three themes, it is clear that there is a significant cultural change happening that will shift the ground beneath us. These changes are not limited to America. The Brexit vote and the rise of Eurosceptic parties everywhere are all part of the same phenomenon. The more we find these changes surprising or even shocking, the more it shows how out of touch we are with a big section of the public.

Business leaders would do well to understand this tide of cultural change and what it might mean for their own particular business.

joezl@me.com