Taking advantage of Brexit requires left and right brain thinking

Your right brain probably let you fall in love, even though your left brain told you they were no good for you. However, you bought the BMW because it was reliable, even though your right brain really wanted the Alfa Romeo – fast but rusty. People are even described as left or right brain thinkers. The right brainers end up in a design studio, while the left brainers become accountants.

But psychologists tend to talk less often about balance. After all, there is a bridge between the two halves of the brain called the corpus callosum, indicating you’re supposed to use both sides in any given situation. And when it comes to Brexit, you will most definitely need both sides to be working well, and ideally in harmony.

Brexit and balance brains 

If the pound in your pocket is worth less when you buy anything abroad (contrary to Harold Wilson’s advice over 50 years ago), then the media is advising that you buy British. Except that the right brain has no intention of choosing the second hand Rover over the Merc; so that won’t work. And appeals to retailers to take advantage of Brand Britain are only going to work for a few heritage brands and only for the sentimental at heart.

As to whether Brexit is a chance for us all to think about what it means to be British, that remains to be seen, as it may cause us to turn in on ourselves, when clearly, one of the biggest opportunities in Brexit is for the UK to regain its global trading instincts, naturally without the empire building elements that this once necessitated.

Here is the balance: by looking in, to re-explore who we are, we can we then look out again and take a much more active role in the global economy. It’s better than being a victim of it, as we usually are every time the US falters. And if Trump gets elected, we may wish our plans for global trading had been put in place a lot sooner.

Preparing your technology company for post-Brexit Britain

The need for a balanced brain will only become more pressing as the details of our EU exit unfold over the coming months. To help retail technology vendors prepare for whatever rough ride the government puts us through, Fieldworks has created a guide to Brexit’s impact on the retail industry.

Download your tech vendor’s guide to Brexit for strategic advice on how your business can remain a trusted partner for retailers, even when they are cutting back their supplier list.