To thrive amid volatility, leaders must optimise technology investments, excel at driving change, and proactively manage risk: Forrester
According to Forrester’s report, How To Thrive Through Volatility, business and technology leaders need to quickly adapt to current economic uncertainty. This year has been marked by unpredictability and volatility — new tariffs, trade wars, outages, cyberthreats, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical tensions are all contributing to global market instability. As a result, business leaders may have an impulse to pause planned initiatives and spending and wait to see how things play out. Yet with no end in sight to this volatility, leaders should double down on investing in areas that position them for future growth while proactively optimising costs, pivoting resources, and scaling back on non-essential projects.
As competitors retreat, market opportunities will emerge for those poised to take control. For business and technology leaders to thrive through volatility and come out ahead, they will need to focus on four critical areas. These include:
Fiercely optimising tech investments and simplifying technology: This is not the same as ruthless cost cutting, which, when done reactively, often undermines long-term value. Instead, it’s about identifying opportunities to streamline — such as eliminating redundant software and renegotiating to drive greater efficiency and savings. It’s also about reprioritising — not pausing — modernisation plans to be more nimble, secure, and prepared to make the best use of AI and other game-changing technologies.
Reaffirming brand value and prioritising customers: Understanding and prioritising which customer segments to serve will help leaders adjust their brand’s value proposition to reflect volatility shifts.
Excelling at leading change: To successfully adapt to volatility, leaders must provide confidence and clarity to their organisations. Along with building bidirectional listening strategies and communicating transparently to employees, leaders should cultivate a culture of continuous learning and upskilling.
Proactively managing risk: More than 40% of business and technology leaders cite economic uncertainty as the systemic risk that they are the most concerned about. While leaders can’t stop volatility from happening, they can manage it by taking a continuous, holistic approach to risk. Forrester recommends managing three sources of risk — enterprise risks tied to their strategy and factors fully within their control; ecosystem risks they can partially control arising from third-party relationships; and external risks they can’t control, including tariffs — and creating scenario plans for addressing each risk type.
“The ongoing tariff negotiations on imports from all APAC countries has introduced significant uncertainty into the market, with the full ramifications yet to unfold, said Frederic Giron, VP, Senior Research Director, Forrester. “In this volatile environment, it is imperative for business and tech leaders to engage in comprehensive scenario planning to anticipate various outcomes and develop adaptive strategies that ensure organisational resilience. By proactively preparing for multiple contingencies, APAC organisations can navigate the complexities of the evolving trade landscape effectively.”
