Analysis on risk, pressure, and decision-making across systems.
The CORE Series brings together analyses on risk, pressure, and decision-making across sectors. Each piece focuses on how issues emerge, how signals are missed or misread, and why outcomes are often shaped well before they’re publicly visible.
The goal is simple: surface patterns early, clarify what matters, and create space for better judgment before decisions are forced.
Pressure Is Not the Same as Risk
Pressure tells you what you’re experiencing. Risk tells you what it could change. For leadership, understanding that distinction can mean looking beyond the loudest issue to the one with the greatest potential consequence.
Why Collaboration Isn’t a Shield Anymore
Collaboration used to reduce risk. Today, it often creates leverage. As organized pressure campaigns evolve, engagement no longer signals resolution—it creates artifacts that can be exploited, escalated, and reused. Leaders who treat collaboration as a shield are often surprised when it becomes a source of pressure instead.
Pressure Isn’t Escalating — It’s Embedding
Pressure in 2026 will come from the convergence of governance strain, regulatory drag, tightening public expectations, activist network shifts, and shrinking institutional bandwidth. We look at key examples of this pressure in 2025 — so leaders can map their organizational fault lines before pressure exposes them.
One of the Most Dangerous Risks for 2026: Narrative Vacuums
Narrative vacuums form when leaders leave gaps in communication. Here’s why they’re the biggest reputation risk of 2026—and how organizations can prevent them.
Broken trust breaks brands
First it was shrinkflation. Then price fixing. Record profits. Bloated bonuses. The headlines kept coming — often more than once. Parliamentary hearings turned into political theatre. Then came the latest: meat price gouging.
This grocery story? It’s a case study in how trust erodes — slowly, then all at once. And then it’s gone.
Tone Deaf: When brands lose sight of mission
Businesses exist for a variety of purposes. Some offer products to meet needs in the market. Others provide essential services. Some may focus on social change. But there’s an old saying I learned in politics: you can’t fight for a cause if you can’t feed your family. The same translates to business: you can’t support causes if you don’t make a profit.
Whatever the cause, whatever the reason, it’s critical organizations do their homework first. Does it align with your current customer profile? Does it signal a departure from what you’ve done in the past? How will employees or suppliers respond? How will it impact you.