Leading in turbulent times webinar series: Rapid resilience

In such times of crisis, companies’ resilience is what shines. So what are the different strategies that lead to resilience? How have certain companies absorbed the shock, changed and bounced forward rather than backward?
This webinar led by Howard Yu, LEGO Professor of Management and Innovation and Director, Advanced Management Program (AMP), IMD, and Patrick Reinmoeller, Professor of Strategy and Innovation, IMD, takes a deep dive into how companies in Asia, Europe and the US are beating the virus with resilience. Discussing key capabilities and strategies, they explore different approaches and reflect on two important questions that plague company leaders now: How to become resilient? How to do so rapidly?
The basis of their thinking is summed up in five principles of resilience: structural organizational autonomy; industry boundaries rooted in ecosystem thinking; decision making transparency; culture of resilience; and strategic foresight.
Sometimes a company can benefit from unexpected developments, according to Professor Yu. While governments have spoken of reconsidering the size of technology firms in the recent past, that thinking has sustained a major shift since COVID-19.
“Everyone from Elizabeth Warren to the Indian authorities wanted to break up big tech,” says Yu. “Now firms like Google and Apple are now responding to the COVID-19 crisis by working together with governments to track individuals, for example. What a windfall!” says Yu.
Professor Reinmoeller then delves into several examples of resilience in family-owned or -dominated companies.
“Companies with a culture of resilience embrace slack – for these firms, redundancy is not important,” he says. “Stora Enso, for example, has been around since the 1200s and has been obsessed with sticking to their values and core purpose.”
Yet Reinmoeller specifies that at the same time, the raw materials company has remained ready to adapt when necessary, keeping a balance between tradition and innovation.
The two professors then end with a discussion on strategic foresight and what your company can do now to reinforce resilience to ensure a more successful future.
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
The case study examines the organizational transformation challenges faced by MedTech Diagnostics, an 850 million medical diagnostics company attempting to balance innovation speed with regulatory compliance and quality standards. CEO Patricia Che...
Listen to the critics and you would think Europe was finished. Too bureaucratic, they say. Cannot agree on migration. Moving at glacial pace while Silicon Valley races ahead. It has become such a tired narrative that we have almost started believi...
Why is that we accept new product, process, and even business model innovation as normal, but significant organizational innovation not? After all, it is not as if our organizations continue to maintain their vitality as they age. Like fading iPho...
The Trump Administration’s new $100,000 fee on H-1B visa petitions for foreign workers currently outside the US presents big technology companies — and others — with a dilemma. Must they rethink their global hiring strategy — or does the sheer siz...
The case study explores the second phase of ABB's 2018 to 2024 transformation journey to restore confidence in the underperforming conglomerate through a simplification of its structure and a focus on accelerating decision making. Under interim CE...
The case study explores the first phase of ABB's 2018 to 2024 transformation journey as it tackled longstanding challenges: financial underperformance, declining market confidence and inefficiencies in its complex matrix structure. To streamline o...

In 2020, Conrad*, a pharmaceutical executive, approached us with a pressing challenge. He had recently taken charge of a team tasked with using digital tools to accelerate the drug discovery and development process. While the technical obstacles w...
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
in I by IMD
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Case reference: IMD-2670 ©2025
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Case reference: IMD-2669 ©2025
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications