Today we are experiencing remarkable change across the world and keeping up with what is taking place is demanding, and constant challenge.
It is easy to fall behind.
I’ve been convinced for some time that the digital age we now live in is the ‘game changer’ that is the key driver of change.
In Italy we have recently seen a very different outcome in their 19th general election since the end of the Second World War. The people have spoken and the election resulted in more sleepless nights for the European Union bureaucrats and leaders in Brussels.
This election result was all part of the dramatic change across Europe with the European electorate in multiple countries demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the old political order and elite.
It is not just in Europe where we find the leadership struggling to match the demands of those they represent.
In the developing countries of the world it has brought considerable difficulties for those in charge.
Some of the leadership is resorting to more extreme measures as they struggle to deal with the unfolding situations all around them.
I had a look at 10 such developing countries where the leadership has responded to events both internal and external in unconventional ways.
Many have chosen to present themselves as tough characters who blame everyone else and not themselves about the problems their poor citizens must endure today.
There is no doubt in my mind that their autocratic, and in some cases bizarre, behaviour and actions make matters worse.
If and when we get around to repairing the damage inflicted today it will take time and will be expensive.
The 10 countries I looked at covered the globe from South America, through Europe and Russia, down through the Middle East into Southeast Asia and finally ending up in Africa.
These countries accounted for close to 11 per cent of the global population representing a cross-section of many of the major religions and ethnic groups.
I then checked their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and they accounted for only 4.2pc of global GDP. I checked back to 2010 and found that these same 10 countries accounted for 6.2pc of global GDP.
None of this is an exact science but if I read the situation correctly these leaders have not delivered anything that can be considered a positive outcome.
All of the countries I checked were classed as democracies but all of them failed to match up to the standards of those that exist in the developed world.
Back in the 1950s when I was a schoolboy when we were taught geography I learned that I lived in one of the 25 countries in the world classified as full democracies.
This position had been achieved after a period of democratic decline after the First World War when there were 21 countries classed as democracies.
Today there are 76 countries that are classed as democracies according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Nineteen of them are full democracies where civil liberties and basic political freedoms are supported by a culture that flourishes under democratic principles.
There are established government checks and balances, an independent judiciary and a diverse and independent media.
They are an example to the rest of the world of what full democracies can achieve. None of the 10 countries I examined were in this group of countries.
Time for some around the world to wake up and face up to their brutal reality.
Gordon is the former president and chief executive of BMMI. He can be reached at gordonboyle@hotmail.com