The final session of the 2016 Harvard Business Review Summit Mexico focused on a pressing issue on everyone’s mind: the 2016 United States election and the rise of Donald Trump. In a session titled “After the Elections: The Future of Mexico – United States Relations,” David C. King, American author, political consultant, and professor at Harvard University, and Peter Hakim, President Emeritus and a Senior Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, engaged in a conversation with Rodrigo Pérez-Alonso González, columnist with the Mexican newspaper Excelsior and Partner at Techonomics, regarding the current threat posed by the Donald Trump phenomenon, and its impact on the United States and its neighbors.
Both Mr. King and Mr. Hakim were in agreement that Hillary Clinton would likely win the presidency, but hedged their predictions with the perspective that despite their opinion that Donald Trump would lose the election, the ongoing division and acrimony of this election season would not quickly disappear.
“The political establishment… bears some responsibility to the emergence of Trump,” said Mr. King. “There’s been a lack of attention to certain fundamental problems in the U.S… A large portion of the electorate has been ignored for a very long time… The anti-immigration narrative has been resonating because people feel under threat, particularly in rural America… This is going to be a very, very difficult period for the U.S. to navigate.”
In terms of the impact on U.S. – Mexico relations, both panelists saw major economic repercussions should Donald Trump win the presidency.
“It would be terrible if for the U.S. economy if Donald Trump became president. He is erratic and unstable, and our markets need stability. And when we get sick, our neighbors tend to get sick,” said Mr. King.
Additionally, both panelists saw potential for significant improvement in U.S.-Mexico relations, highlighting immigration policy and free trade agreements as areas of focus.
The Harvard Business Review Summit Mexico is the most important meeting of leaders, organizations, and ideas regarding the future of management, hosted by the Harvard Business Review, the most important strategy and leadership publication in the world, and Opinno, the Spanish-language publisher of HBR. Held at the IPADE campus in Mexico City, the homebase for the most important international business organizations focused on the Latin American market, the HBR Summit served as an opportunity to engage in a truly important dialogue regarding the ideas and practices that are changing the business world in Mexico, Latin America, and beyond. For more coverage of the 2016 event, click here.
