Leadership Under Pressure: Operating The Enterprise In Times Of Volatility

Volatility is no longer episodic — it’s the operating environment. War‑driven geopolitical conflict, energy shocks, cyber escalation, AI disruption, and supply chain fragility are colliding to compress planning cycles and raise the stakes of every business decision. For marketing, CX, technology, and security leaders alike, this volatility is showing up simultaneously in budgets, customer trust, brand promise, employee burnout, infrastructure access, and operational resilience. 

This peer discussion will focus on how enterprise leaders are adapting strategy, execution, and leadership models when stability can no longer be assumed. We’ll explore how CMOs and CX leaders are protecting demand, loyalty, and experience under pressure — while tech and security leaders rethink cost, resilience, sovereignty, and risk — and where these worlds must align to avoid fragmentation.  

This conversation will be hosted by Steph Balaouras, Matthew Selheimer, Martin Gill, and Sri Sridharan, and will include open discussion with participants, so please bring your questions and real‑world experiences to share with the group. 

Questions for discussion:

• How is geopolitical volatility (including war and energy disruption) changing your priorities this quarter — not just long‑term strategy, but day‑to‑day decisions? 
• Where are short‑term cost pressures colliding with long-term strategy? With AI ambitions? 
• How are you adjusting planning and operating models when assumptions about stability no longer hold?  
• What does resilience mean outside of IT right now? 
• How are you leading people through sustained uncertainty? 

Peer discussions are available exclusively to Forrester Decisions VIP Leader and Leader license holders for their own participation.