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Navigating geopolitical risk: 3 proactive strategies

by Liam Donovan

3 min read

Sep 10, 2025

Complex geopolitical dynamics and conflict pose a significant challenge to companies and their risk leaders.

With the geopolitical situation transforming so rapidly and affecting companies both directly and indirectly, reactive approaches to emerging threats aren’t enough. Instead, organisations are taking more proactive measures to safeguard people, assets, and operations.

Where did these insights come from?

A number of Risk Leadership Network's member organisations had raised geopolitical risk as a key priority for their team. We facilitated a virtual meeting for these members, where they could share practical approaches and learn how peers were navigating the uncertain geopolitical landscape. This is a snapshot of some of the approaches shared during the meeting.

1. Prioritise people

Risk leaders all agree on a core principle: people should be front of mind when considering the impacts of geopolitical crises regionally.

So, what are the key methods that risk leaders in our network are using to safeguard personnel in anticipation of – and during – geopolitical crises?

Method	Actions taken
Proactive mitigation measures	Implementing temporary travel restrictions for staff who would normally work between offices in different countries. Loosening normal in-person working requirements for certain employees to allow more working from home. Arranging temporary accommodation for employees unable to leave high-risk areas.
Localised crisis management	Embedding crisis teams locally in high-risk areas, and tasking them with overseeing emergency measures, ensuring the safety of local employees, and maintaining a minimum level of operations.
Early warning systems	Establishing early warning indicators – using a combination of both internal and external sources – to monitor signs of social and/or political unrest. This enables the business to act quickly and move employees from dangerous environments with plenty of time.

2. Develop robust crisis and resilience capabilities

With an array of possible scenarios and business impacts stemming from geopolitical risk factors, companies need to focus on not only preventing risks from materialising, but managing crises, adapting to change, and being resilient. Risk leaders in our network suggest this can be achieved in a number of ways:

A

A tiered approach to crisis management

One option is to adopt a three-tier system for building resilience capability:

Gold capabilities are targeted at head office and group functions, who are activated when incidents or situations escalate to the level of a crisis.
Silver capabilities are targeted at leadership functions of regional teams, who are a buffer between the business and the group.
Bronze capabilities are targeted at local business units, equipping them with the skills and knowledge they need to manage incident-related disruptions in their area of the business.

B

Think bigger than documentation

While documentation and process is important – so that people know what action to take (or who to escalate it to) – it is not the only sign of a resilient organisation.

While plans are a helpful starting point, companies can’t map all of the possible scenarios. Therefore, working with the business to be risk-conscious, adaptable and willing to speak up should be a core focus of your strategy.

C

The power of collaboration

The more serious the crisis, the bigger the impact it will have on the organisation, and the less likely it can be managed in a silo.

Any resilience-related procedures implemented – and the testing of those procedures – should incorporate cross-functional collaboration, information sharing, and consolidation of resources to ensure successful collaboration across the organisation.

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3. Use information effectively

There is a lot of information available about geopolitical risks and their potential impacts, but what is the right information and how are companies governing and using it? Here are some tips from practising risk leaders:

Prioritise trusted sources

Organisations are focusing on choosing trusted sources to help mitigate the risk of making decisions based on misinformation.

Systemise information sharing

Whether it’s implementing a technological platform or establishing governance around the sources of information used, organisations are adding process around information to ensure relevant information is shared, and to prevent misinformation spreading.

Social media is not always the enemy

Information found on social media can be used in some circumstances, for more targeted purposes. For example, one organisation in our network is using it to highlight negative press coverage that could be a reputational risk for the organisation in times of geopolitical crisis.

What's Next?

Our members were unanimous in their view that proactive, continuous adaptation is necessary to navigate the fast-changing and complex geopolitical landscape companies face. Investing in organisational resilience now will not only help companies in the short-term, but also make them stronger in the future.

Geopolitical uncertainty remains one of the top emerging risk factors for organisations across all regions, according to data from our Emerging Risk Reporting Comparison Tool. We will continue to support our members on this topic by facilitating peer-to-peer collaboration, highlighting new approaches, and sharing forward-looking insights using our new AI Horizon Scanner, coming this autumn.

Horizon Scanning Tool

Emerging Risk Reporting Comparison Tool

Risk Leadership Network captures externally reported emerging risks in our online platform. Find out more and request a demo today.

Request a demo

To find out more about how you can get involved in upcoming collaborations around geopolitical risk, or more about our AI Horizon Scanner, request an exploratory call, or explore membership here.

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