David Simpson
Director, Business Families Centre
Richard Ivey School of Business
Optimism and her evil twin pessimism are human emotions that pack a powerful economic punch in the lifecycle of private companies. Consumer sentiment can either send a company’s prospects soaring or fatally wound an entrepreneur’s dream—often with little direct correlation with the firm’s actual business prospects. Does a restaurant in Ontario really have to atone for the sins of the mortgage lender in the southern US? Unfortunately, in this small world we live in, these macro events take a life of their own.