AMPLIFY VOL. 38, NO. 7
In an era defined by disruptive shocks and constant uncertainty, the conversation around organizational resilience has never been more urgent or more nuanced. Today, resilience extends beyond recovery to encompass the capacity to foresee challenges, adjust proactively, and influence the path forward.
Across industries and sectors, leaders are realizing that resilience is no longer a static capability; it is a dynamic system of design. It is about shaping conditions before crises unfold, embedding foresight into decision-making, and building adaptive intelligence into strategy. Resilience by design transforms the notion of preparedness from a reactive stance to a generative discipline, one that turns volatility into a catalyst for renewal and long-term advantage.
At its core, resilience is less about the strength to endure and more about the coherence to evolve. It requires integrating human judgment with technological insight; aligning governance with learning; and creating cultures that value awareness, experimentation, and shared accountability. In this sense, resilience becomes an organizing principle — one that redefines how institutions perceive complexity, engage with uncertainty, and unlock new forms of collective intelligence.
As AI reshapes human-machine collaboration, sustainability imperatives redefine value chains, and societal expectations shift, resilience emerges as the connective tissue between innovation and purpose. It is the discipline that enables organizations to see weak signals early, surface diverse perspectives, and act with clarity amid ambiguity. True resilience is not reactive; it is an anticipatory state cultivated through intentional design and guided by a clear sense of purpose.
This issue of Amplify brings together leading thinkers and practitioners whose work redefines how we conceive, cultivate, and measure resilience for the challenges ahead. Their contributions illuminate how foresight, adaptability, and governance intersect to create organizations that are not only robust but regenerative. Together, they remind us that resilience is not a destination but a continuous act of design, one that equips organizations to shape, rather than merely survive, the future.
In This Issue
We open the issue with an article from Benjamin Herndon and Ben Szuhaj, who trace resilience failures not just to structural flaws but to the limits of human cognition in the face of complexity. Through lessons drawn from NASA’s Challenger and Columbia disasters, the authors show that true resilience depends on seeing weak signals, surfacing dissent, and learning continuously — capabilities that human-machine teaming and thoughtful AI integration can unlock. Human and machine, working together, create foresight and learning beyond any individual capability. This article goes beyond the hype, cautioning against technological quick fixes and advocating for deliberate investments that turn fragmented information into collective awareness and timely action.
Next, returning contributor Bill Fox expands the lens, mapping out six “territories of resilience,” from shifting societal expectations and regulatory complexity to technological and climate upheaval, and proposes four pillars that organizations can use to anchor resilient design. Fox’s article is rich with examples: logistics companies thriving through ecosystem collaboration, manufacturers succeeding by fusing user-centric design with systemic thinking, and firms reviving their foundational “why” to attract and mobilize new generations of talent. His message is clear: those who design resilience into their strategy are designing advantage in a world of constant upheaval.
In his article, François Pumir takes readers to the place where resilience originates: within leaders and the cultures they foster. Through candid storytelling and sharp analysis, Pumir shows how fear-based planning, driven by old narratives and past failures, inadvertently breeds fragility instead of true readiness. He invites us to replace exhaustive frameworks with a new leadership practice rooted in clarity and direct perception, offering practical steps to cultivate a culture that responds fluidly to emergent realities. It’s a transformative reminder that true resilience starts within by shifting mindset from fear to clarity.
Next, Randal Whitlatch delivers a practical framework for managing today’s increasingly volatile supply chains. He demonstrates how embedding prestructured, legally sound, operationally consistent protocols transforms supply chain risk from a source of fragility into a pillar of organizational resilience. By aligning legal rigor with repeatable processes, companies can mitigate disputes, preserve commercial integrity, and sustain customer trust — critical foundations for maintaining business continuity and securing lasting advantage in uncertain times.
Closing the issue, Arthur D. Little’s Nicholas Johnson, Siddharth Pai, Olivier Pilot, Joshua Sanz, and Eystein Thanisch explore how autonomous AI agents are reshaping customer interaction, data ownership, and advertising strategies. Their findings highlight that designing for resilience is essential for retailers to stay competitive as AI agents transform the market. Original experiments carried out by the authors reveal how these AI-driven disruptions challenge traditional retail media players, underscoring the urgent need for resilience by design in the face of rapidly evolving AI ecosystems. Their work exemplifies how anticipating technology’s impact empowers organizations to maintain influence and competitive advantage amid fundamental change.
Each contribution to this issue of Amplify pushes the conversation beyond recovery and optimization. The articles reveal resilience as a living system, a mosaic of design choices, leadership mindsets, and collaborative practices that position organizations for enduring success. Common threads knit their work together: the power of anticipating rather than merely surviving change; the value of investing in adaptability as both a human and technological capability; and the need to embrace learning, dissent, and interdependence. As the issue demonstrates, lasting advantage belongs to those who build learning, collective insight, and foresight into every level of their enterprise.
