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When Wait and See Is Smart Strategy
Waiting can be a dysfunctional choice — or a wise approach to navigating complexity. Leaders facing today’s uncertainty must know when and how to wait.
Are we wisely waiting or merely drifting? That’s a question many corporate leaders will be asking themselves in the coming weeks and months. Uncertainty is not a new concept. But today’s political uncertainty — epitomized by the U.S. tariff edicts and global responses to them, ranging from threats to negotiation — seems to be having a distinct, paralyzing effect. Companies are deferring investments, such as chemical giant Dow with its now delayed construction of a new plant. Companies are also postponing sales; for example, Nintendo pushed back preorders of its next console. Finally, companies are delaying decisions: Bookings for shipping containers and airfreight have fallen significantly from a year ago. The secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce has said that this behavior is evidence that companies are “kicking decisions down the road” on supply chain restructuring as they watch how trade policies and relations develop.