Read our insights

Jose Luis Sarrio (international business centre director and partner at Grant Thornton Peru) and Madeleine Blankenstein (international business centre director and partner at Grant Thornton Brazil) discuss the outlook for Latin America.

New research shows that rising optimism in Quebec is feeding into brighter business growth prospects but that bureaucracy is constraining those very same growth plans. The results from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR), a survey of 2,500 senior executives in 34 economies, reveals that despite the roadblocks, businesses in Quebec are focused on incentivising productivity improvement and enhancing sales force effectiveness in a bid to boost growth over the next 12 months.

Nathan Goode calls for a change of narrative in the sustainability debate.

With momentum building towards the UN Climate Change Conference in Peru, new figures from IBR reveal that businesses leaders in emerging markets are more focused on the sustainability of their operations compared with peers in developed markets.

Sustainability is a buzzword of the moment. Whether as business leaders or consumers, we cannot escape from being told to consider the long-term implications of our actions or spending decisions.

Nathan Goode welcome growth opportunities extra government scrutiny brings

The dangers of social media are clear, but the risk to a charity of not getting involved is far greater. A story that emerged during the research for our new report, ‘Growing communities: How charity leaders govern social media globally to thrive online’, illustrates this perfectly.

The technology sector is riding the crest of a wave. We interview approximately 150 technology companies around the world every quarter through our International Business Report (IBR) and what’s struck me since the beginning of the year is how bullish the leaders of these companies are about their growth prospects.

One of the greatest challenges with using social media strategically is measuring its success. Boards need to understand how social media is helping meet their strategic objectives and need to set goals and define success early in the planning stage. Measurement is crucial to understanding whether these goals have been achieved.

How can charities hope to master and benefit from social media unless they understand its full potential and risks? Our new report, ‘Growing communities: How charity leaders govern social media globally to thrive online’ , reports on our interviews with charity CEOs from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

I spend a lot of time outside of work with friends and colleagues; going out, playing or watching sport, going to the cinema. But do I spend as much quality time as I should with my family? If you ask my Mum, she will say no.

It will not surprise an international audience that the build-up to the World Cup has been overwhelmingly negative in Brazil. Scenes of local protesting about the huge sums of money lavished on stadia in Manaus and Brasilia, which are likely to poorly used after the main event, have been broadcast around the world.

Outsourcing remains widely utilized by businesses across both sides of the Atlantic. The UK is seeing increasing utilization of outsourcing services across a number of industries, including the IT, HR, tax, and finance and accounting (F&A) functions within companies. And a recent survey shows that this continues to be attractive to companies within the USA, UK and EU.

The real estate and construction sector continues to make steady progress as it recovers from a financial crisis in which investors, developers and homeowners were disproportionately hit.

As the global economy slowly recovers its verve, so business leaders in the hospitality and tourism sector are looking at new ways to grow their operations. So says our International Business Report (IBR), which interviews around 150 senior executives in the sector globally every quarter.

Energy costs are a major concern for businesses in Italy: close to two in five business leaders expect rising energy costs to hinder growth over the next 12 months (38%) according to our Q1 International Business Report (IBR) results. This is above the global (35%) and EU (31%) averages and reflects the higher price of energy in Italy compared with the rest of Europe.