WASHINGTON — One word never leaves the stage in boardrooms and earnings calls when CEOs describe how they are handling crisis after crisis: resilience.
Corporate leaders have faced countless challenges over the past six years. Covid-19 lockdowns and port strikes have disrupted supply chains, while wars in Ukraine and Iran have driven up energy prices. Ever-changing tariff policies have increased costs, and the explosion of artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming business.
Also read:
Continues after advertising
These changes are no longer temporary — they are part of everyday life. Investors and boards of directors, typically focused on short-term performance and growth, have also come to value leadership skills capable of adjusting and adapting in a chaotic geopolitical environment.
Leaders need to be able to anticipate and absorb shocks in their business and react quickly.
“They don’t realize how much they’ve grown up in a world that values resilience,” said Rich Lesser, global chairman of the Boston Consulting Group, a professional services firm. “His background and his mentality are much more resilient than they would have been at the end of the last decade.”
Since January 2020, variations of the word “resilience” have increased 162% in earnings calls from publicly traded companies in the United States with a market value of at least $1 billion, according to AI research firm AlphaSense.
‘Use of the term began to decline in 2023 and 2024, but spiked again after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs last April. In recent quarters, it has been rising again.
The word works as an explanation of how executives overcome uncertainty, make agile decisions and prevent existential challenges from paralyzing their organizations.
Continues after advertising
“There are wars, fuel price spikes, economic problems, recessions — and you need to be prepared for the long term as a company because shocks are going to happen,” Bob Jordan, CEO of Southwest Airlines, told investors on a conference call this month. “That’s why we’ve built a very resilient business.”
CEOs perk up when the topic comes up. They use the term to describe their leadership style and list the different forms that resilience can take. In many ways, resilience has become the antidote to uncertainty.
Thasunda Brown Duckett, CEO of TIAA, a retirement plan manager, said resilience has always been necessary to deal with change over the company’s 108 years. What has changed, according to her, is the speed at which businesses can be impacted.
Continues after advertising
“A conflict on the other side of the world can have direct economic implications almost instantly,” Duckett said in an email. “And CEOs are being asked to take a public stance on all of this, in real time.”
German pharmaceutical and biotechnology giant Bayer has drastically altered its organizational structure to keep pace. Since January 2024, the company has eliminated two-thirds of its management positions.
Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer, said he wanted to transfer more power to specialized teams within the company, allowing for faster decisions.
Continues after advertising
“Companies have crisis management departments, risk management groups and contingency plans — and all of that is valid, but that’s not how you build resilience,” said Anderson, in an interview backstage at the Semafor World Economy event this month. “Resilience comes from a flexible and adaptable organization.”
Leaders highlighted the importance of having a clear strategic vision for the business, which allows them to maintain focus amid macroeconomic uncertainty. Being able to communicate to employees — and investors — what the company’s goals are increases trust.
“You need to have what we call ‘shared consciousness,’” said Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO of Tapestry, owner of the Coach and Kate Spade brands. “Everyone needs to understand the mission.”
Continues after advertising
At PacSun, a California-style retail chain located in shopping centers, management rebuilt the organization with a unique vision. After emerging from bankruptcy protection in 2016, the company prioritized stronger partnerships with customers and employees to make the business more resilient to crises, said its CEO, Brieane Olson.
“More important than resilience, for me at PacSun, is building trust,” said Olson. “This includes suppliers, store salespeople and customers.”
Investors also look for resilient leaders. “This needs to be part of the operating model,” said Hemant Taneja, CEO of venture capital firm General Catalyst. “Every CEO needs to lead with a foundation of trust in this regard.”
In the healthcare sector, historically seen as less sensitive to global fluctuations as it deals with essential needs, companies are talking about reducing prices for consumers and speeding up insurance approvals.
Zach Reitano, CEO of Ro, a direct-to-consumer company that offers access to GLP-1 weight loss medications and online service — with campaigns starring Serena Williams — said leaders need financial, cultural and strategic resilience. Still, he highlighted the importance of resilience to better serve customers.
“How to ensure that, even with the world changing around you, the product or service offered continues to deliver what was paid for, what the customer expects and deserves?”, said Reitano.
c.2026 The New York Times Company
