Horizon Scanning

Global Trade & Investment

[Dialogue] An Unruly World: Why Traditional Strategies No Longer Work,

‍Sean West, Co-founder, Hence Technologies: The world is becoming increasingly volatile and “unruly,” with political, legal, and technological forces colliding in unpredictable ways. Sean West explains why siloed risk responses fail and how businesses should develop integrated strategies to withstand synthetic risks—from deepfake fraud to geopolitical corporate targeting.

I think we’re going to see an onslaught of rule-breaking—and of pressure for compliance-focused companies to loosen up in order to compete with rule breakers.

***

Global Trade & Investment

[Dialogue] How to Build Geopolitical Resilience? Prepare, Don’t Predict.

Sebastian Vos, Partner, FGS Global: Modern geopolitical risks demand scenario planning and ongoing risk scans, rather than one-time predictions. By mapping multiple plausible futures, businesses can adapt strategies to regulatory shifts, trade disruptions, and local political pressures—ensuring resilience in a world where uncertainty is the only constant.

The only thing we can be certain of is that the future is uncertain. So, organisations must prepare for different outcomes, rather than seeking to predict one.

***

Global Trade & Investment

[Dialogue] Pausing FCPA Enforcement – What This Means for Companies Operating in Asia

Khushaal Ved, Partner at Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee: The U.S. Department of Justice’s temporary pause on initiating new FCPA investigations (with narrow exceptions) signals a recalibration of enforcement priorities. However, it does not exempt companies—especially non-U.S. entities—from local anti-corruption rules or future FCPA scrutiny once enforcement resumes. Staying vigilant remains essential.

This is a U.S.-driven pause, not a conclusion to local and international corruption enforcement.

***

AI Governance

[Dialogue] Data as an Asset: Are You Still in Control?

‍Rohan Light, Principal Analyst Data Governance, Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora): As AI becomes entwined with core operations, controlling your data inputs and outputs is crucial for sustaining long-term value creation. Rohan Light cautions that over-reliance on third-party models can reduce a business to a mere intermediary—eroding leverage and strategic autonomy.

The problem is that organisations are too dependent on external providers to generate value around organisational data.

Implementation

AI Governance

[Dialogue] Learning from the Past: Avoiding Surface-Level AI Compliance

‍Alyssa Harvey Dawson, Board Member, Former GC & Tech Executive: AI governance should be seamlessly integrated into business operations—focusing on innovation, customer trust, and competitive advantage, rather than just box-ticking exercises. Drawing on lessons from GDPR, Alyssa Harvey Dawson underscores the risks of treating governance as a standalone compliance burden.

Businesses should incorporate responsible AI practices before legal requirements mandate them.

***

Global Trade & Investment

[Dialogue] Triaging: A More Economical Approach to AI Compliance?

Jerry Gupta, Head of AI Products & Insurance, Armilla AI: Large enterprises only explore about 5–10% of potential AI use cases, often due to onerous compliance hurdles. Jerry Gupta proposes a risk-based “triaging” framework, which applies rigorous oversight to high-risk AI models while streamlining lower-risk ones—reducing compliance overhead (sometimes as high as 7%) and freeing organizations to pursue more high-value AI initiatives.

In most scenarios, companies go after the highest-value opportunities first. But with AI, it is almost the opposite. Companies focus on low-value, low-risk projects or even avoid AI initiatives entirely.

Optimization

Global Trade & Investment

[Data Story] The Impact of the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation on M&A

20Minds Editorial Team: The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) aims to curb distortive subsidies in the EU market and has already led to in-depth reviews of major cross-border deals—adding new layers of complexity to an already demanding regulatory landscape. While the process can be time-consuming, it underscores the importance of carefully managing geopolitical and competition risks in large transactions.

FSR reviews have proven time-consuming, often taking longer than other regulatory approval processes faced by investors.

***

Addressing Operational Pain Points

[Video] Solved!

StructureFlow, BRYTER: The next batch of 20Minds SOLVED! demos is live. This release highlights smart tools that eliminate time drains in legal workflows — from automatically generating visual deal structure charts in minutes (PE, real estate, complex entities) to combining AI with no-code platforms to handle contract reviews, side letters, and day-to-day legal tasks.

What caught our eye

[Reading List] What others write

Click here (Members only, via Airtable) for a curated list of potential “raw materials”, articles, graphics, datasets, or books that caught our attention. You can browse through and vote on the relevance of each item. If a piece of content receives an average 3-star rating, we will reach out to the author to collaborate on an executive-style 20Minds version.