News and Insights

The Speyside Latin America team is closely analyzing Lula's narrow election victory in Brazil, one of the world's most critical high-growth and emerging markets. His administration signals a major shift in Corporate Affairs for key sectors, prioritizing a new "green" energy transition and state-led infrastructure investment. This creates both regulatory challenges and new opportunities for clients in the Speyside Power sector, particularly as the government aims to move away from privatization and realign domestic energy prices.

The Speyside Latin America team identifies a critical opportunity in the region's post-pandemic focus on self-care. As health systems in these high-growth and emerging markets face strain, Speyside Healthcare sees e-labeling for OTC products as a vital health literacy tool. Our Corporate Affairs practice is positioned to help clients lead the regulatory conversation and make this a reality.

The Speyside Asia Pacific team is analyzing Indonesia's new Personal Data Protection Law, a monumental shift in one of the region's key high-growth and emerging markets. While the law provides much-needed regulatory clarity and eases data transfer rules, it also introduces significant compliance risks, hefty penalties, and a short two-year transition period. This complex landscape demands a proactive Corporate Affairs strategy for businesses to engage in the upcoming policy consultations and avoid legal issues.

The Speyside Latin America team is closely analyzing the results from Brazil's election, which reveal a deeply polarized nation in a key high-growth and emerging market. The tight runoff between Lula and Bolsonaro guarantees a toxic, negative campaign focused on rejection rather than policy. While polls favor Lula, the new, highly conservative Congress—and strong gubernatorial support for Bolsonaro in key states—signals significant legislative hurdles and volatility, demanding sophisticated Corporate Affairs strategies to navigate the term ahead.

The Speyside Asia Pacific team is closely analyzing Singapore's Healthier SG white paper, a pivotal policy shift in one of Asia's key high-growth markets. This strategy, moving from reactive treatment to proactive prevention to curb rising costs, will fundamentally reshape the Speyside Healthcare landscape. The new focus on primary care, capitation-based funding, and mandatory IT adoption creates a new operating reality, requiring sophisticated Corporate Affairs and engagement strategies from all health sector stakeholders.

Based on over 20 years of experience in global emerging markets, Speyside outlines its core methodology for successful Corporate Affairs. We help companies move beyond just identifying problems to strategically shaping policy in high-growth markets. Our approach involves finding the policy 'sweet spot' where business, government, and public interests align, adopting the right strategy—from direct engagement to alliance-building—and navigating complex local nuances to drive economic growth.

Our Head for the Andean and South Cone Region, part of the Speyside Latin America team, breaks down the million-dollar question in Corporate Affairs: measuring PR. We argue against vanity metrics, focusing instead on impact. Our Speyside Communications strategy, powered by our proprietary in.sight tool, analyzes the landscape in high-growth and emerging markets to build a roadmap that ensures our content is meaningful and drives real business outcomes.

The Speyside Latin America team is analyzing President Petro's complex energy transition in Colombia, a key high-growth and emerging market. The government's plan to halt new oil exploration and impose new taxes on the Speyside Mining Latin America and energy sectors creates significant fiscal risks. This environment demands sophisticated Corporate Affairs and strategic insights, which our Speyside Power team is actively monitoring.

The Speyside Asia Pacific team is analyzing the overlooked economic significance of the recent US delegation to ASEAN, one of the world's most critical high-growth and emerging markets. While the new IPEF framework is criticized as "toothless," our analysis shows it’s a pragmatic “fresh start” for US re-engagement amid the US-China rivalry. This evolving landscape requires sophisticated Corporate Affairs strategies to navigate new opportunities in digital trade and regulatory alignment.

The Speyside Asia Pacific team is closely monitoring the escalating political instability in Thailand, a key high-growth and emerging market. Although the PM survived a no-confidence vote, it revealed deep schisms within the ruling elite. With a critical court ruling on the PM's term limit imminent, the country faces significant uncertainty, demanding sophisticated Corporate Affairs strategies to navigate the road to the next election.

The Speyside Asia Pacific team is analyzing the aftermath of India's stringent COVID lockdown, a major crisis management event in one of the world's key high-growth and emerging markets. While the economic package is insufficient, the government is strategically using the crisis to push significant structural reforms (agri, mining, defense). This evolving, complex policy landscape—including the ambiguous "self-reliant" push—requires sophisticated Corporate Affairs engagement.

The Speyside Healthcare team is highlighting the urgent need to integrate self-care into policy, a shift that could save global health systems $120 billion annually. Our analysis, which is critical for high-growth and emerging markets like Speyside Latin America, shows that a successful self-care strategy must be built on three pillars: a long-term government vision, mandatory health education, and digitalization. This is a core focus of our Corporate Affairs practice as we help clients navigate the post-pandemic healthcare landscape.