The EFMD Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Roundtable, that joined this year IMD’s annual CLO Circle at IMD in Lausanne, brought together more than 50 learning and development leaders to explore how organisations can strengthen their geopolitical resilience.

IMD and EFMD Global brought together their learning leader networks to examine how organisations can develop the capabilities needed to navigate geopolitical fragmentation. Until recently, geopolitical issues were largely regarded as the domain of Corporate Affairs. Today, however, they affect fundamental business decisions: the reconfiguration of global supply chains, the impact of sanctions on market access and partnerships, growing regulatory divergence in areas such as data governance and ESG standards, and the management of political risk in investment and capital allocation.

Operating successfully in this environment requires more than geopolitical awareness. Organisations must translate insight into preparedness, leadership judgement and collective action. This distinction between geopolitical literacy and organisational capability was reflected in the title of the Roundtable: Building geopolitical resilience from insight to capability.

IMD Professor Simon Evenett argued that political considerations increasingly take precedence over economic and business objectives in the US-China rivalry, and that geopolitical fragmentation is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. National security concerns are driving higher defence expenditure and public borrowing, while the era of abundant and inexpensive capital has come to an end.

Professor Arturo Bris drew on the annual findings of the IMD World Competitiveness Center. He highlighted the importance of a high-quality education system and a country’s ability to attract and develop talent, particularly in strategically important fields where skills are in short supply.

I had the pleasure of moderating a panel with David Jestaz of Forvia and Matthias Reuter of Siemens, who illustrated how geopolitical disruption is already reshaping leadership and capability building.

David described how the fragmentation of the formerly global automotive market is eroding economies of scale. It also raises questions about the continued global deployment of data platforms such as Palantir and Eightfold. In response, Forvia created a four-day executive programme to help senior leaders understand different worldviews and underlying assumptions, analyse the forces at play, and consider the strategic options available to the company.

Matthias explained that Siemens had demonstrated a strong capacity to respond to crises but saw a need to strengthen anticipation and preparedness. In response to an increasingly fragmented environment, Siemens has moved away from the notion of a single ideal leadership profile. It is instead developing diverse pools of leaders, fostering contextual leadership and building regional talent ecosystems that remain globally interoperable.

The panel highlighted an important distinction. Geopolitical literacy gives leaders a shared language for interpreting developments. Resilience, however, requires company-specific capabilities that translate this understanding into decisions and coordinated action. A strong culture anchored in non-negotiable core values must therefore be complemented by the ability to lead under uncertainty and ambiguity.

In subsequent breakout sessions, participants considered the implications for their organisations’ leadership agendas and leadership development practices. The feedback from the six groups showed a high degree of convergence:

• Geopolitical sensemaking and scenario planning should become integral elements of strategic foresight.
• Organisations should draw on the diversity of their leadership collectives and create psychologically safe environments for candid debate and constructive disagreement.
• Leadership pipelines should encompass a wider variety of skills and profiles, connecting local and regional talent pools rather than relying on a single global leadership model.
• Shared values are essential to maintaining trust and cohesion across increasingly diverse operating environments.
• Curiosity, systems thinking and tolerance for ambiguity must be cultivated at all levels, while leadership models need to be reconsidered in light of both geopolitics and AI.
• Organisations must overcome silos, strengthen enterprise thinking and make management careers more attractive again.

The central conclusion was not that every leader must become a geopolitical expert. Leaders do, however, need sufficient geopolitical literacy to recognise changing assumptions and challenge established strategies. Learning and development functions must then help translate this awareness into the organisation-specific capabilities, leadership practices and collective preparedness required before the next disruption occurs.

The EFMD Corporate Services team sincerely thanks IMD, especially Professor Shlomo Ben-Hur and Dr Paul Hunter, including their team, for co-creating this event and making it a success, and President David Bach for addressing the group.

For additional insights, announcements, and perspectives, visit the conversation on Corporate Learning.