Companies must maintain agility and the ability to pivot in the face of tariff uncertainty
Volatility isn’t going away. If anything, it’s increasing. Geopolitical uncertainty, especially in the form of unexpected tariffs, is now part of the environment we’re operating in. If your strategy can’t adapt to that quickly, you’re already behind. It’s clear that the teams who are flexible, fast, and unafraid to adjust course are the ones who’ll lead. The rest are just reacting.
Simon Freakley, Executive Chairman at AlixPartners, made it clear: the companies that win aren’t stuck with decisions made in yesterday’s world. They pivot, not reactively, but deliberately. Strategy isn’t something you set then forget. The ability to change direction quickly and execute without friction is now a real differentiator.
If you’re leading a company right now and you’re not embedding agility into your operations, in your supply chain, in your product cycles, in how you allocate capital, that’s a risk. Being prepared to ditch what’s no longer working and jump on what is, that’s how you stay ahead. This isn’t about abandoning long-term thinking. It’s about using the present moment as fuel to get to a better long-term position faster.
This is also cultural. Your leadership, your board, your teams, everyone has to internalize this mindset. Agility doesn’t mean chaos. It means readiness. It means optionality. If feedback from the market says your assumptions are wrong, you’ve got to be ready to shift, with speed and without overcomplicating. That’s how companies gain ground when others stall.
Think less about predicting the next move in global trade, and more about being ready to move regardless. Agility buys you that readiness.
Protecting the balance sheet is a top CEO priority during periods of tariff-driven uncertainty
Cash is control. In unpredictable market conditions, especially when governments are moving fast on trade and tariffs, companies with liquidity are in the driver’s seat. If you’re low on cash and high on fixed costs, decisions start getting made for you. That’s not where you want to be.
Simon Freakley from AlixPartners gives straightforward advice here: cut down discretionary spend, move fixed costs into variable ones, hold back on large capital projects unless they’re mission critical, and strengthen access to funding — through reserves, asset sales, or credit lines. It’s all about giving yourself options. No options means no maneuverability.
A strong balance sheet lets you move when others can’t. When assets hit the market under distressed conditions, being capital-ready gives you instant leverage. If something you’ve been watching for months suddenly becomes available at a better price, you act, you don’t run another forecast meeting. That’s why maintaining liquidity isn’t just defensive. It’s strategic.
There’s also a bottom-line discipline here that a lot of leadership teams need to push harder on during volatility. Every bit of spend needs sharp justification. If it doesn’t help the business flex, grow, or stabilize right now, pause it. Some legacy costs might need to shift or disappear altogether to avoid locking up capital in inefficient structures.
This is about decision speed, not just preservation. With a resilient balance sheet, you reduce dependence on the market environment. You set your path, not the interest rate or the next headline.
Leaders should focus on controlling the factors within their reach amidst broader uncertainties
You can’t control tariffs. You can’t control global trade policies. But you can control how your business responds. That’s where focus needs to be. When external variables get noisy, internal precision becomes critical. The reality is, the more unpredictable the environment, the more valuable operational discipline becomes.
Simon Freakley put it plainly: control the controllable. That means aggressive cost management, maintaining liquidity, optimizing supply chains, and staying close to data. These are the levers you can actually move. Don’t waste time chasing answers you won’t get. Instead, double down on what you can execute today.
This is execution-focused leadership. It demands visibility into what’s working, what’s not, and where the waste is. If your systems aren’t delivering that kind of insight in real time, you’re flying partially blind. Fix that. Use the data you already have and make faster, more informed decisions from it. It’s not about waiting for clarity, it’s about being effective in uncertainty.
For the C-suite, this also means pushing mid-level management to own their metrics and outcomes. If every part of the business is operating with sharp awareness of its inputs and outputs, leadership isn’t forced to micromanage in a crisis. The organization moves faster and reacts smarter without waiting on every sequence to escalate up the chain.
Make sure the business is structurally tuned to respond, not just report. Strategic control happens when every core function, finance, operations, supply chain, and product, is aligned and responsive. That alignment starts from the top.
Effective tariff navigation necessitates a reconfiguration of supply chains and import strategies
Tariffs follow geopolitical intent. If you’re importing the same goods into the same regions without reassessing the total landed cost, you’re exposing your margins unnecessarily. When trade rules shift, your supply chain should, too. Companies need to rethink how they’re sourcing, assembling, and routing products across borders.
Simon Freakley, Executive Chairman at AlixPartners, makes this clear: organizations that restructure around tariff zones gain a pricing and speed advantage. That means importing semi-finished goods instead of finished ones, manufacturing high-cost components domestically, or redirecting material flows through countries where tariff exposure is lower. These aren’t just cost-saving tactics. They’re direct responses to regulatory pressure.
It takes discipline to take products apart and analyze where the cost accumulates, labor, parts, packaging, transport, tariffs. From there, leaders can figure out how to reassemble the supply chain to reduce tariff load without sacrificing product quality or delivery timelines. Strategic reconfiguration isn’t simple, but in many cases, it’s the only way to stay competitive when tariffs spike.
China now controls 60% of global rare earth element supply and 90% of rare earth-related manufacturing. That changes the calculus. If tariffs hit imports from China hard, you need to ask, should you separate raw material extraction from the manufacturing location? Can you move processing through a different jurisdiction and cut total tariff costs? These questions should already be on your operating and risk teams’ desks.
This is continuous work, not a one-time fix. Leaders should ensure that global ops and logistics functions are not set to default. They should be constantly scanning for changes to optimize, renegotiate, and reroute supply lines before they become liabilities. You can’t assume that what worked under last year’s rules will hold under today’s.
AI tools are revolutionizing decision-making by quickly identifying optimal tariff configurations
Speed matters, especially when the rules change fast. Tariffs can shift overnight, and when that happens, your supply chain, sourcing methodology, and cost structures either flex or take a hit. AI has now become a critical layer for decision-making in this environment.
Simon Freakley highlights how AI-enabled systems are transforming how companies respond to trade volatility. These tools scan thousands of supplier contracts, shipping data, and jurisdictional rules to uncover where cost can be removed and where sourcing or routing should optimize. What once took weeks of spreadsheets and legal reviews can now happen in hours, often with clearer results.
This matters at the operational level, but also at the C-suite level. Executive decisions are only as good as the data feeding them. With AI, you’re not handing over decision rights, you’re accelerating time to analysis. That means clearer insights, faster pivots, and better capital deployment. It puts your team in a position to act based on the current landscape, not last quarter’s assumptions.
These AI systems also identify small deltas in product classification or sourcing that lead to major shifts in tariff exposure. If your tooling isn’t helping you catch those changes in real time, you’re leaving margin on the table. The pressure on supply-side costs isn’t easing up. So the faster you integrate automation into your decision chain, the more resilient your business becomes.
If you’re not already running AI engines across trade exposure, contract terms, and cost trees, you’re operating below capability. The tools are there. The opportunity is real. Leaders who treat this as core infrastructure and not just auxiliary tech will move faster, and with more precision, than those who stick to legacy methods.
Transparent, proactive CEO communication builds stakeholder trust during periods of crisis.
Silence is not a strategy. In times of uncertainty, the companies that retain alignment and momentum are the ones where leadership communicates clearly, directly, and consistently. CEOs don’t need to have all the answers — but they do need to show they are engaged, making decisions, and updating their people in real time.
Simon Freakley points to Marriott’s late CEO, Arne Sorenson, as a benchmark. During the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis, Sorenson personally addressed all 444,000 Marriott employees in a recorded video. He was visibly unwell but chose to show up anyway. That tone, honest, focused, and values-driven, earned significant credibility across the workforce. He didn’t spin uncertainty. He acknowledged it, explained the company’s path forward, and took ownership of the message.
Executives who wait to speak until they have perfect answers lose control of the narrative. It’s far more effective to openly lay out the approach being taken, the factors being weighed, and the principles guiding decisions. That applies equally to employees, investors, partners, and regulators. When communication is strong, trust compounds, even in difficult periods.
This also builds internal resilience. Teams that understand the “why” behind changes move faster and with fewer blockers. They don’t waste time speculating. They align to the direction being set. Without that clarity from the top, initiatives stall and alignment drops, especially when external pressure rises.
As a CEO, treat communication as a core function, not a task to delegate. Whether you’re managing a tariff shift, a supply disruption, or economic stress, your voice, and your clarity, are critical assets. When people know what’s happening and why, they can adapt. That transparency, done consistently, is what keeps organizations stable while everyone else is guessing.
Crisis environments provide opportunities for well-prepared firms to seize competitive advantages.
Crises don’t affect all companies equally. Some freeze. Others move. The execution gap between the two often comes down to preparation, particularly financial readiness, operational flexibility, and a leadership team that doesn’t hesitate when the situation demands bold action.
Simon Freakley makes the distinction clear: the companies that win during disruption are not just better at reacting; they’re better positioned to act. Liquidity gives them room to acquire undervalued assets, expand into weakened markets, or restructure without external constraint. The firms that don’t have that flexibility are stuck, too slow, too bound to fixed costs, or too cautious to make moves when timing matters most.
This is about positioning your company so that when the context changes, tariffs go up, supply chains break, inflation returns, you can respond decisively. A strong balance sheet, a modular cost structure, and a deep understanding of your essential versus non-core operations are advantages you control. If you’ve put capital in the right places and reduced exposure where needed, you’ve already missed far fewer chances.
During volatility, leaders shouldn’t only be focused on defense. There’s offense to play, key hires become available, competitors hesitate, and new customer segments open up. A fast, capital-ready company with clear priorities has more options and greater leverage in these windows.
Realistically, this comes back to pace. Being first, or simply early, on the right strategic moves during disruption can reset your company’s position in the market. But you won’t get there by waiting. You get there by being ready before the opportunity surfaces. That readiness is what defines the winners coming out of any crisis, including this one.
Recap
If you’re leading a company right now, you’re not operating in a stable environment, and that’s not changing anytime soon. Tariff shifts, geopolitical moves, and supply chain volatility aren’t temporary stressors. They’re structural features of today’s market.
This isn’t about predicting every disruption. It’s about building a company designed to move, with balance sheet strength, operational flexibility, intelligent tooling, and leadership that communicates directly and acts decisively. Agility isn’t a talking point. It’s a requirement.
You’re not expected to have all the answers. But you’re expected to set a direction, protect the fundamentals, and make sure your people are equipped to navigate what’s next. That’s what real leadership looks like in uncertainty. Decisions made now are going to determine who gets left behind, and who turns volatility into momentum.
