Leaders face an uncertain landscape. The impact of each decision feels impossible to predict, which is why they need strategies that are proactive, resilient, and competitive. No matter their starting point, BCG can help.
From geopolitical tension and supply chain bottlenecks to soaring inflation, rising interest rates, and decelerating growth, businesses must navigate a range of complicated global headwinds. Despite these challenges, leaders have a powerful opportunity to build business resilience and competitive advantage.
It’s never been more important for leaders navigating uncertainty to sharpen their approach to managing volatility and cost reduction. While an economic downturn is never guaranteed, leaders need a strong resilience strategy in order to evaluate trade-offs and successfully lead. No two resilience journeys are the same, with each path forward individually based on region and industry, so BCG’s business resilience consulting experts help leaders recognize their starting points and guide them each step of the way. Our business resilience framework—sense, adapt, and thrive—equips leaders managing uncertainty with a head-on approach or a more long-term strategy.
BCG’s approach helps leaders chart their course for the future and build a more resilient enterprise, no matter their starting point. We draw on our strategic heritage to help companies reinforce their positions and create functional advantage, even in moments of disruption.
Financial Resilience in Business
Wherever its starting point, any firm can achieve financial resilience in business by taking advantage of such approaches as zero-based budgeting and cost-cutting, scenario-based strategic planning, or acquiring new capabilities through mergers and acquisitions.
Operations
Opportunities to find advantages while reducing exposure to risk often exist at the operational level. BCG focuses on supply chain resilience, comprehensive margin management, and technology innovation to find greater efficiency.
People and Organizational Strategy
Both people and technology are key to resilience. Companies must combine new technologies—from AI to quantum computing—with human capabilities to power growth, innovation, and business resilience.
Marketing, Sales, and Pricing
As inflation remains high, firms must approach pricing and consumer behavior with continuous measurement and improvement. BCG helps firms adapt rapidly in order to maximize value for their customers.
Tech Resilience
The push for AI and tech adoption takes on new urgency as companies strive for greater agility, speed, and data-driven automation.
The Action Imperative: A CEO’s Dilemma
Leaders have never confronted such a complex mix of volatile conditions in so many areas all at once. BCG helps executives design resilience strategies with objectives that are as ambitious as they are sensible.
Retail is dragging—and inflation is just one of the many reasons why. Talent management worries, uncertainty around consumer spending, ongoing supply chain volatility, and flattening e-commerce growth continue to create huge challenges.
In this edition of BCG’s Executive Perspectives, we examine the disruptive forces that are bearing down on business leaders today, offering concrete actions that they can take to capture lasting competitive advantage and create more resilient organizations.
Pay attention to immediate risks—but remember to look for the many opportunities to build long-term resilience and advantage. BCG experts describe today’s volatility and how companies can turn from uncertainty to action.
Three simple questions are top of mind as the global economic environment shifts: How do we counteract recent margin compression? How should we prepare for a potential recession? How can cost optimization address these trends?
In the Spotlight
Dec. 2, 2022 | 9am ET
Examine the macroeconomic forces bearing down on business leaders, and explore the concrete actions they can take to create more resilient organizations.
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Reinforce Financial Performance
Today’s uncertain macroeconomic environment requires leaders to build advantage into every aspect of their business, from financial resilience in business to supply chain resilience to pricing to cost management. Read our latest insights on bolstering your core business in the face of uncertainty.
Prices are rising. An energy crisis is brewing. And interest rates are climbing amid the worst inflation seen in decades. We explore how businesses can withstand and emerge stronger from these events by building the financial resilience they need to thrive.
Building resilience and promoting sustainability while maintaining cost efficiency, service levels, and growth requires redesigning your network—and that will take several years. Better get started.
The best approach to zero-based transformation comes from treating all spending as investment and making the CFO a key strategist for generating value.
Producers can address critical challenges by designing flexible factories, sharing assets, and decoupling factory ownership and use.
Invest for Future Growth
Caution would be the first response of many companies facing turmoil in global markets—but some organizations are well positioned to take bold actions in such times, laying a foundation for future success.
BCG’s new benchmark reveals that only 10% of companies are truly prepared for supply chain disruptions. Where do you stand?
A confluence of factors means the time-tested approaches to cost control won’t work. Insurers need to rethink how they achieve more with less while maintaining a strong customer focus and employee value proposition.
Manufacturers can use an assessment framework to anticipate and prepare for future market disruptions.
In a downturn, marketers who make strategic decisions will excel when the dust settles. With more control, flexibility, and precision than ever, resilient marketers can invest in personalization and smart allocation to create competitive advantage.
