Rohan Silva: Beware Brexit hitting us like a left hook from Tyson

Who’s the wisest business thinker around? Some might say it’s Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School, who came up with the phrase “disruptive innovation”. Others might make a case for Marc Andreessen, the influential Silicon Valley investor.

If you ask me, though, I wouldn’t pick either of them — I’d go for a former boxer (and ear-biter): the infamous “Iron” Mike Tyson.

Tyson never wrote a brainy book about corporate strategy but he did say something that (accidentally) sums up the challenges facing big businesses today better than any academic paper. As he sagely put it: “Everyone’s got a plan until they get a punch in the face.”

For multinational corporations today, Tyson couldn’t be more right. The pace of technological change has made the economy more unpredictable, and big companies have been hit hardest (in the face).

According to the consultancy firm McKinsey, back in 1930, the average lifespan of the world’s biggest corporations was around a century — but today that’s fallen to just 18 years, and it’s forecast to be as little as 10 years by 2025.

This turbulence means old strategies have been thrown out of the window — and major companies are scrambling to find ways to work in new ways.

I saw this for myself last weekend — I was in Frankfurt during the world’s biggest car show, and it’s clear that the corporates (Mercedes, Volkswagen and all the rest) have had to re-adjust to technological advances coming from Tesla, Google and other upstarts.

Everywhere you looked, traditional companies were partnering with start-ups to develop new innovations such as self-driving cars and electric vehicles.

Back in London, you find the same thing happening — major corporations working with start-ups in fields ranging from cyber-security to the future of fashion.

Our city is the epicentre of this trend because London is home to five times as many European headquarters as Paris. This is where the suits are getting together with the techies to stay ahead of the game.

Look at how the banking giant Santander partnered with London start-up Funding Circle to boost peer-to-peer loans, for example — so much of the innovation here is being driven by corporates fighting to stay ahead.

Long may that continue — although if corporate headquarters leave London after Brexit, it won’t just be a punch on the nose for our economy; it’ll be a smack in the mouth for innovation, too.

Word in your Yrsa: poetry’s hot again

Oh boy. Tomorrow night, I’m hosting a special event at Second Home’s bookshop Libreria with the amazing Yrsa Daley-Ward.

Yrsa is a poet and model — and we’re launching her new poetry book “bone”, which is going to be one of the must-read works of the year.

Poetry and spoken word is the most exciting creative scene in London right now — and I’m clearly not the only one who thinks so, seeing as Yrsa has 117,000 followers on Instagram. Spoken word is still pretty underground — literally — as lots of performances happen in Dalston basements.

But if you go along, you’ll find a community full of political activism and humour.

Scarily — at many events, anyone can get up and perform. That makes them democratic — but also nail-biting.

So why not find a local spoken word night — and have a go? Who knows, maybe you could be the next Yrsa Daley-Ward.

How to brush up on history — from your football shirt

Later on in the week, I’m going to be chairing a talk with Neal Heard, who is a special sort of historian.

Some historians pore over ancient texts but Neal studies classic football shirts, and uses them to look at social changes over the past century.

It’s going to be a real treat — and I’ll be wearing my favourite football kit for the occasion: the bright orange shirt worn by Holland in the 1990 World Cup.

Footy fans will know that the Dutch player Frank Rijkaard was sporting this top when he spat into the immaculately coiffured mullet of Germany’s Rudi Völler.

I’m just hoping I don’t see anyone with a mullet during our talk. I may not be able to control myself.

It’s nice work if you can get it

I was at a conference recently, and I met an interesting guy called Colin Wright — a writer who moves to a new country every four months, based on the votes of his online readers.

Right now Colin’s readers have sent him to Memphis — and they clearly seem to like him, because they’ve never packed him off to Pyongyang or the middle of a war zone.

Talk about a “citizen of the world”. Something tells me Theresa May would not approve.