Industry insights: 6 dimensions to surviving (and thriving) in the era of uncertainty

"We are at a turning point in history", according to Adam Tooze, a historian. We've seen decades of assumptions on geopolitics, trade and the economy upended, he says, "the dawn of artificial intelligence, the rise of China, and demographic shifts", which are adding to transformative changes.

It presents a tough environment for industry leaders, who are faced with seismic shifts while having to keep the shop floor open. A consensus is emerging: traditional definitions of a business strategy are no longer fit for purpose.

In this present scenario the idea of a fixed five-year plan has rapidly become a relic. Instead, industry leaders say that strategy is evolving to become much more fluid, describing it as a “living document” or multiple "strategic tracks" that are able to adapt to uncertainty.

But a focus on meeting the moment doesn't mean they can take their eyes off the future. They need to be prepared to react quickly and change tactics while keeping a view on the long-term.

Here, the World Economic Forum’s community of global industry strategy leaders reveal six dimensions to surviving and thriving in a new reality that seems locked in a cycle of disruption.

A redefined company means not just running an existing business well but exploring – in parallel – how do we build the next one.

Businesses need to navigate the current context and keep optimizing for performance, while simultaneously reinventing their core to be able to compete in the future. This requires balancing two approaches “today-forward” and “future-back”.

Today-forward is about improving what a company already has and does – making it faster, cheaper and more sustainable. Future-back means anticipating customer needs, new technologies and industry disruptions, and then building a business that is ready to meet them. Companies need to look past entrenched business models and invest in future capabilities. Taking the car as an example, customers may not need a car, but just a means of transportation to move from A to B. The car has answered this need for decades, but in future people may find it more convenient to shift from car ownership to shared mobility services, like how they have moved from owning CDs to paying for streaming services.

Executives in charge of corporate strategy must therefore look afresh at their businesses through the lens of future customer needs, rather than in terms of their current offerings. This means a car company may need to learn to think of itself as a mobility company. Companies in other sectors will need to go on similar journeys, and it may mean reframing their narratives about who they are.

Companies are now moving along multiple strategic tracks at once rather than having a single master plan. It is a necessity to respond to the dual challenge of keeping up with fast-moving shifts in technology and governance rules, while also preparing for deeper structural transformation stemming from geopolitical pressures and AI disruption.

The defining feature of our time is the permanence of change, and this is pushing companies to develop a portfolio of strategies to be able to achieve long-term goals. A selection of strategies allows companies to scale up selectively, depending on how market, geopolitical or environmental conditions evolve.

Firms - and their successes - are the sum of their capabilities and networks. Companies have moved from manufacturing their own goods and owning their assets to orchestrating a large network of partners, suppliers, designers and other platforms to produce goods.

Businesses need to evolve from being individual companies to becoming ecosystems. Competitive advantage will come from how quickly and effectively they can mobilize the different resources within their networks to respond to change.

Companies need to reframe risk as opportunity and move fast. In an ever-changing environment, waiting for a perfect set of circumstances before making a decision will create stasis. Instead, having the courage to act even when conditions are unclear could create a competitive advantage.

Leaders need to find ways to abandon perfection in favour of iteration. To get products into the market, get feedback, and have the ability to pivot quickly. Innovation is a real-time activity.

Having a portfolio of strategies supports this approach, enabling companies to take calculated bets on innovation without exposing the business to unsustainable levels of risk.

How companies communicate changes to staff and the public is also crucial. Narrative-shaping is a key part of the strategy for enabling transformation – creating a clear connection between corporate evolution and jobs, security, sustainability and prosperity will be indispensable in securing buy-in from all stakeholders.

Global trade volatility and growing regulatory scrutiny have impacted business models, while geopolitical tensions are accelerating trends such as data localization and cloud sovereignty. But as political positions and economic poles shift, growth stories are also reflecting a more multipolar world, with the Global South playing a central role and regional strategies becoming embedded into global decision-making.

Redesigning supply chains will offer opportunities to enhance sustainability, security and international prosperity, enabling more equitable outcomes and expanding the definition of capital to include human, social and natural capital.

Greater complexity, from tariffs and AI diffusion to rare-earth supply constraints, is forcing companies to build systems that can simulate and respond to different scenarios. The value of small, agile teams and the importance of avoiding operational overwhelm in this high-opportunity period is more critical than ever – something more natural to compact startups than larger organizations. But even big companies can set up innovation squads that work in parallel to their core business teams, to fast-track fresh ideas.

Inconsistencies in global regulation could create bumps in the road, however. Economic dynamism depends on regulatory stability, reciprocity and thoughtful reform and ongoing an open dialogue is critical to facilitate this.

The corporate strategy job has never been more interesting. Complications create opportunities, and if new technologies and new geopolitical realities represent complications, new business models and new partnerships are the resulting opportunities. But growth will hinge on shared goals, agility, and alignment across sectors.

AI, digital infrastructure, and automation offer bright spots for example, yet they rely heavily on foundational sectors like energy and commodities.

Underinvestment in these areas poses a potential bottleneck. The energy transition, in particular, is a critical enabler, both as an economic growth area in its own right and as a necessary condition for sustained technological advancement. A more balanced investment approach, one that integrates innovation with physical infrastructure, supply resilience, and environmental sustainability is needed.

Cross-sector collaboration will therefore be key as companies evolve into ecosystems, with corporations, governments, and financial institutions able to co-create solutions.