No Business as Usual. How the Economy is Transforming
We start with our article ‘Transformation travels at the speed of trust’, which describes our perspective on transformation. It is based on practical experience – from conversations with managers and entrepreneurs as well as our current observations in change processes.
At the centre is the realisation that transformation begins where new images emerge, participation is taken seriously and leadership can also withstand uncertainty.
How companies handle major changes
“The world is going crazy.” “Everything has become unpredictable.” These are typical responses from managers we interviewed in the spring of 2025 about current challenges. We live in a world full of changes and multi-crises, but also opportunities. It is a time of transition, disruptions, a turning point.
Uncertainty, unpredictability and change are omnipresent. Even though we said this 30, 20, and 10 years ago and most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic, many things are different today. The cause: The simultaneity of enormous societal and ecological changes and the transformation of the economic system – with an intensity and speed which we have never seen before.
The political system, which is supposed to provide the framework and boundaries, wavers. Even seemingly secure achievements like democracy, free media, or the separation of economic and political power are becoming fragile, leading to a climate of uncertainty, fear, and a sense of erosion, which John Vervaeke calls “The Meaning Crisis.” At the same time, paradigms and beliefs are becoming malleable, opening up new opportunities and perspectives. In this article and special issue, we elucidate uncertainty and, potential as well as how changemakers and organizations can successfully deal with them.
The Challenges
- Uncertainty/Unpredictability is everywhere: The climate crisis and energy transition impact companies from all sectors – from the food industry to manufacturing. Politicians and government officials are dynamizing this situation through vague, ever-changing strategies.
- AI and new technologies disrupt: The question of how new technologies can be utilized adequately, and in a way which creates value, is not a trivial one – and it is far from answered.
- Financial issues and cost pressure are increasing: Liquidity shortages, rising raw material prices, and high wage agreements: The need to save has increased dramatically in many companies.
- Labor market and personnel situation are tense: Finding and retaining employees, generational change and retirements, replacement of key personnel – the answers are predictable and well-
- Customers act on short notice and on a budget: Spontaneity makes the B2B business more volatile and unplannable. Investments are made more carefully and cautiously. For B2C, the urge to save makes investments more difficult. A cocktail that massively hinders growth.
The Oppurtunities
The survey also shows opportunities for societies and companies, whose leaders act proactively:
- Opportunities for society/the economic system: The energy transition can lead towards a CO2-neutral, more environmentally friendly economy. We are moving closer together, both geographically and through the increasing importance of cooperation/networks. The disruption could strengthen leading industries (in Europe).
- Opportunities for companies: Networking and partnerships open new paths. The pressure forces quick decision-making, sharpens processes and makes it easier to leave the trodden path, to develop new ideas, try them out, and learn. This lets companies become more dynamic and agile, and allows them to better utilize or expand specific niches. This requires reorientation: Focus, strategy, business models and product portfolios are questioned and rethought. In short: It becomes easier to change old, less useful patterns and to stop with what should have been changed a long time ago.
Pain Points in Companies
Currently, leaders are dealing with four areas of change:
- Strategic corporate management: Business models need to be reassessed and moved closer to markets and customers, focusing on efficiency and effectiveness. The key is evidence-based (warm-data-based) management of one’s organization to make better-informed decisions.
- Leadership: A redefinition of the common understanding of leadership and new beliefs like “Everyone is a Leader, everyone is a Changemaker” is needed. Decisions should be made more decentralized and closer to the customer. Working on personal beliefs and organizational patterns becomes more important.
- Networking: Networks and partnerships, building and maintaining stable relationships strengthen one’s ecosystem. This applies to the supply chain as well as to employees and customers. Communities (“fanbases”) should be built around the company.
- Digitalization: AI solutions need to be adapted to the needs, characteristics and logic of one’s business. What should be digitized and what should not be? How can we use AI to respond to market changes? And how can we encourage the use of new technologies? This is a challenge for leaders.
How can a transformation be successfully managed?
Strong images of a good future
Change needs “a story that moves us” – a strong, embodied narrative of a future in which the organization is strong, confident, and competent in the markets, in interacting with its customers, and delivers the best possible products and services.
As long as there is no vision that moves people in an organization, that speaks to them in a way that they can embody and therefore live them in their daily work (live them almost automatically), no big goal, no vision will have a chance of being implemented. It is less relevant what is written on paper; it is more important how the vision was created. If key players in an organization know and feel where the road should take them, they will have a much greater chance of bringing it to life and to induce others to come together to work with full force.
Weitzer Wood Solutions, a spin off Weitzer, a company traditionally trading with wooden floors, asked itself: “What if we redefined and changed wood?” It is an excellent example of how to work with beliefs: “If we rethink wood until it knows no boundaries, maybe our resources will not reach their limits either.” Rethinking wood as a universally usable raw material instead of just a floor, has since guided the company on its path. Making the raw material measurable through work, like steel, allows them to create entire interiors of cars as well as parts of high-speed trains. Made from renewable raw material, CO2-neutral and good for all of us.
Focus on resources
Especially in difficult times and under high pressure, it is important to consciously focus on available resources – not only time and money but everything that can be helpful and supportive to positive change. For example, competencies and attitudes, alliances, or supportive developments within the organization but also in society. “Positive change” is not meant as an evaluation, but – “positive” derived from the Latin “ponere” (to set, place, lay) – a change that takes good care of what is available and uses it purposefully. If an organization is aware of its resources, energy is released, confidence arises – and with it the courage to tackle even profound changes in a timely manner.
Examining patterns and belief
Our highly dynamic world makes the necessary changes more and more profound. Simple optimizations within the existing logic are not enough to remain responsive. Sticking to old patterns can even be dangerous, because it delays necessary changes and lulls people into pseudo-activity.
Profound change means altering our patterns. Culture is no longer the context but also the subject of change itself. This requires that practiced, but unconscious patterns and beliefs are made describable and discussable and that we question them. The lens through which we see the world needs to be examined.
Participation
To successfully implement major changes, we need to involve people effectively and wisely. Early and broad participation becomes an even stronger success factor for change processes – people support ideas, visions and processes they helped to create, for example by working in dialogue-based large group formats such as Real-Time-Strategic-Change-Conference, Future Search or Open Space. At the same time, more dialogue is needed for communication instead of pure information.
From B2B to B2B and B2C: Previously, a medium-sized company sold its products exclusively through intermediaries (B2B). This increasingly optimized products for businesses and traders. Because there was no direct contact, the challenges and needs of the actual users were almost lost. Therefore, consumers should be addressed directly (B2C). A fundamental restructuring of the business model and consequently the structures and processes was necessary, new know-how had to be built up. For this, the employees were involved very early and comprehensively in the process: The new story, a new guiding narrative that moved people, was developed together. This was crucial because there were also major concerns: “We don’t have the expertise to talk to end customers, we are product manufacturers.” The change succeeded: Sales units and flagship stores were set up to create new solutions for end customers. Ultimately, an improved supply chain even enabled the company to take significant steps towards CO2- neutrality.
A space that holds us
All this needs a framework that lasts, “a space that holds us” – a framework that allows trust to emerge and grow. Trust is the most important resource in change processes: “Transformation travels at the speed of trust.” Anyone is a changemaker or leadership role must first find and hold trust within themselves – endure one’s own uncertainty, recognize and accept fears (yes, all people have fears) instead of denying them, and make it through this phase. This is crucial. Confidence only arises when we have dealt with what is difficult. Brene Brown calls this “Braving the wilderness.” In times of extreme turbulence, this becomes the most important resource and thus also a competitive factor. In addition to trust in ourselves, we need to trust in others (collective trust) and to trust in processes, such as communication and decision-making structures. A secret to building trust is once more dialogue in large groups, which almost incidentally also creates the commitment for implementation. As was the case in a project at one of the country’s major universities: The vision that the involved departments created together was so convincing that dozens of core processes could be revised.
Transparent decisions
For the framework to last, to hold us, we need clear and meaningful governance, enabling participation and quick, smart decisions. In contrast to many circular models that often emerged to counter hierarchy, hierarchy should be used functionally, not denied. Anything else overwhelms people, slows down or even prevents decision-making and lasting motivation. Only a separate transformation-organization, existing alongside the original structure, allows observing patterns to be changed and consistently intervening to lead the organization step by step from the old, dysfunctional state to a new target state. In this change organization, decisions about resources of all kinds are made in a new way and therefore hold space for the future.
