The Eurasia Group, Essay Example

The Eurasia Group is a service company active in the cutting-edge field of political risk analysis and consultancy. Established in 1998 in New York City, the Eurasian Group has grown into the world’s largest political risk consultancy firm, employing over 150 full-time employees, as well as a group of approximately five hundred experts, situated all over the world, specializing in a diverse number of areas, from economics to geopolitics. (Kallianotis, 2013, p. 265) The Eurasia group has approximately over four hundred clients, among them institutional investors, government agencies, multi-national corporations and major investment banks. (Kallianotis, 2013, p. 265)

The diverse portfolio of the Eurasia Group’s clients underscores the wide-ranging informational services that the organization offers. According to the Eurasia Group’s official website, the services they offer include »the direct access to analysts, independent research and consulting reports, political risk assessments, strategic planning and scenario analysis and quantitative risk metrics and evaluations.« (Eurasia Group, 2014) At the same time, the diverse number of clients indicates the value and quality of the Eurasia Group’s, as the Eurasia Group in terms of its clients reaches into the public as well as the private sectors, a fact that re-emphasizes its broader influence. One of the key services provided by the Eurasia Group, and which it is known for, is the Global Political Risk Index (GPRI), which measures political stability in emerging markets, aiming to identify, for example, growth trends as well as potential political unrest. (The Economist, 2014) On an annual basis, the Eurasia Group releases its annual top ten risks to global stability, an influential indicator of potential trouble spots for both politics and business. (Perlberg, 2014) What the Eurasia Group does is expressed by its President, Ian Bremmer, as follows, »Political risk is about understanding that governments and businesses have different expectations and goals. To operate a global business successfully, you need to understand what motivates government action, particularly in places where politics matter at least as much as economics to market outcomes.« (Eurasia Group, 2014) The Eurasia Group represents the intersection of economics and politics, as well as a global example of what information and consultancy services represent in the contemporary era.

My presentation of the Eurasia Group shall take the following structure

An Outline of the company: in this section, I will outline the company’s history as well as basic philosophy. I will also summarize some of the key services that the Eurasia group offers. Competitors in political risk consultancy will be identified, as well as potential service issues that arise, in particular from the difficuclty of forecasting the relationship between politics and economics and providing this as a service.

Service issues: because of the nature of the services which the Eurasia gGroup offers it faces numerous obstacles which must be constantly overcome. Firstly, the very nature of the services offered, risk consultancy, means that the Eurasia Group is operating in a volatile, speculative area. Arguably, the success of the Eurasia Group attests to the fact that they have managed to provide quality services despite the volatile nature of the field in which they operate. Furthermore, the Eurasia Group has a diverse number of clients, from political governments to multi-national corporations. How the Eurasia Group deals with such diverse clients is arguably crucial to their success.

Competitors will then be discussed. This is of particular interest to the Eurasia Group, because arguably its competitors are not only other political risk consultancy firms, but also non-governmental organizations and political governments themselves. For example, in so far as the Eurasia Group has clients who are governmental agencies, this means that certain branches of government are not relying on their own agencies for information, but value a view from the private world.

In my final paper as well as presentation, I shall present all these points as well as a critical analysis of the Eurasia Group’s achievements and possible future obstacles to its services. The possibility that a service company like the Eurasia Group is also an indicator of the way in which more services, traditionally in the hands of government agencies, are now being privatized. In general, I wish to discuss a service company that does not deal with the everyday and mundane, but instead with two of the most dominant forces that structure our world today: the political and the economic.

Bibliography

Author Unknown. (2003). “Political Risk Analysis: The New Bull Market. The Economist. The Economist, May 23. Retrieved 13 June 2014 at http://www.economist.com/node/1804681

Kallianiotis, J. N. (2013). International Finance Transactions and Exchange Rates: Trade, Investment and Parities. London: Palgrave MacMillan.

The Eurasia Group. (2014). “What we do”. The Eurasia Group. Retrieved 13 June 2014 at http://eurasiagroup.net/about-eurasia-group/what-we-do

Perlberg, S. (2014). “Eurasia Group: Here are the Greatest 10 Risks to Global Stability.” Business Insider, January 14. Retrieved 13 June 2014 at http://www.businessinsider.com/eurasia-group-10-greatest-risks-2014-1