Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

Benjamin Herndon and Ben Szuhaj 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, they 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.

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.

Through candid storytelling and sharp analysis, François 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.

Bill Fox maps 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.

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.

ADL’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.

In this Advisor, Noah Barsky explores three essential lenses — profit precision, ratio relevance, and cash clarity — that help leaders make smarter financial decisions. Building on prior insights, it shows how financial fluency equips executives to align strategy with reality, drive efficiency, and sustain enterprise health in an age of accelerating change.

When people believe in what they are doing and feel a part of it, they create better customer service. When employees feel psychologically safe to innovate, they push their thinking further and happily voice their ideas. They are excited about going to work, don’t often miss work, feel like they are a part of the solution, and don’t quit. And if people aren’t leaving, then companies aren’t spending billions to replace them.

Getting It Right

So who’s currently getting this right? And what does that look like?