NEWS

Geopolitical fracture is rewriting the rules of succession planning, and most boards have not caught up.
The Oliver Wyman Forum and NYSE CEO Survey 2025 found that nearly nine in ten CEOs now cite geopolitics, trade policies, tariffs, and industrial policy as a risk to their business, up 20 percentage points from the previous year. That jump, the largest of any risk factor in the survey, places geopolitical disruption at the centre of the leadership agenda. And yet, succession planning in most organisations still treats geopolitics as somebody else’s problem: a background condition to be monitored rather than a defining variable in who should lead next.

The consequences of this disconnect are becoming visible across every major economic area. In late December 2025, China sanctioned 20 US defence companies and 10 senior executives, barring those individuals from entering mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. That same month, the US expanded its own travel ban to 39 countries. Earlier in 2025, the EU sanctioned two Chinese banks for helping Russia circumvent European restrictions, setting a precedent that financial institutions anywhere can be designated if they frustrate EU policy. India’s Press Note 3 requires government approval for any investment by entities from countries sharing a land border, a rule that has primarily affected Chinese investors but creates precedent for broader application. These are not isolated incidents from one country, they are parallel actions by competing powers, each one narrowing the space in which global executives can operate.

Read more.