MIT Sloan Management Review Article on The Five Steps All Leaders Must Take in the Age of Uncertainty

Corporate executives need to move beyond only managing their own company and become active influencers within broader systems.

Business leaders increasingly find themselves in unfamiliar territory marked by high levels of uncertainty and instability, a slowing global economy, and shifting political realities. Global economic policy uncertainty has tripled since 2000 and continues to accelerate.1 Our own research shows that this systemic uncertainty feeds into corporate decision-making. Companies are more exposed than ever to economic and political feedback,2 and their performance swings are increasingly due to noncompetitive effects.3 This phenomenon affects players across entire industries and, in the extreme, can threaten their very survival.

About the Author

Martin Reeves is a senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) New York office and director of the BCG Henderson Institute (BHI); he tweets @MartinKReeves. Simon Levin is professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University who specializes in the theory and management of complex adaptive systems. Johann D. Harnoss is a project leader at BCG and an ambassador to the BHI. He tweets @Johann_Harnoss. Daichi Ueda is a consultant at BCG and ambassador to the BHI.

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