When business leaders discuss competitiveness today, the conversation rarely stays limited to one subject. It may start with artificial intelligence, energy, trade or industrial policy, but it usually moves towards the same concerns: resilience, dependency and trust.
The reason is clear. Most leaders no longer expect uncertainty to disappear anytime soon.
Instead of waiting for conditions to become stable, businesses are changing how they operate. The focus is moving from simply improving existing systems to building organisations that can respond when circumstances change.
That is the real shift: businesses are learning to navigate uncertainty rather than optimise for efficiency.
From Optimiser to Navigator
Georg Knill, president of the Federation of Austrian Industries, explained this change through a simple example at the Salzburg Summit.
Last year, he spoke about the importance of having a compass. This year, he added another point: a compass is of little use if the ship remains in the harbour.
The message is straightforward. Having a plan is not enough. Leaders also need to be prepared to act.
Optimisation works well when business conditions remain reasonably stable. Companies can fine-tune processes, reduce costs and improve efficiency because they have a fairly clear idea of what lies ahead.
Navigation is different.
It assumes that disruption can come without warning. Leaders therefore need to keep their direction while remaining ready to change course when required.
For businesses, this means preparing for uncertainty instead of waiting for stability.
Energy Is Becoming a Resilience Issue
The energy sector provides one of the clearest examples of this change.
Renewable energy was earlier discussed mainly as part of climate policy. Today, it is also closely connected with energy security and national sovereignty.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has once again highlighted how dependent many economies remain on Middle Eastern fossil fuels. It has also added pressure on countries to diversify their energy sources.
The economics are supporting this transition.
Solar and wind power are now cheaper than fossil-fuel generation in most markets.
Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, recently noted that roughly three-quarters of the power plants brought online last year were based on wind and solar.
India is also moving quickly in this direction. The country added a record 55.29 gigawatts of renewable capacity through March 2026, nearly twice the previous year’s record. India has already reached 50% of its power capacity from non-fossil sources, five years ahead of its 2030 target.
This shows how the role of renewable energy is changing.
Reducing dependence on fossil fuels and increasing electrification is no longer only a climate-related objective. It is increasingly becoming a resilience strategy.
AI Is Creating a New Dependency Question
Businesses are facing a similar challenge with artificial intelligence.
The AI journey has moved through several stages. Companies first experimented with the technology. They then started looking at ways to scale it across their operations.
Now, there is a much more practical question: Where is the return on investment?
That question is forcing businesses to look beyond AI’s potential benefits and examine the risks that come with adopting it at scale.
One important concern is dependency.
How much should a company depend on a single cloud provider? Should critical operations rely on one technology stack? What happens when important company data is tied to one jurisdiction or technology ecosystem?
These questions matter because efficiency is not the only priority anymore.
Reliability and resilience are becoming equally important.
A technology setup may be highly efficient when everything works as expected. But if one provider, platform or market becomes unavailable, excessive dependence can quickly become a business risk.
Diversification Creates an Opportunity for India
This growing focus on diversification could also create an opportunity for India’s technology services industry.
Companies such as Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Wipro are well positioned to help organisations develop diversified technology environments.
Multi-cloud and multi-stack architectures can help businesses avoid putting too much dependence on a single technology provider.
The idea is not to move away from efficiency. Instead, companies are trying to balance efficiency with flexibility.
This becomes especially important as businesses increase their use of AI and other digital technologies.
The more deeply technology becomes connected to everyday operations, the greater the need for reliable alternatives and stronger governance.
Trust Is Becoming a Business Advantage
Technology and energy are not the only areas where businesses are thinking about resilience.
Trust is also becoming an important economic factor.
Building trust takes time, but losing it can happen quickly. This applies to companies as well as countries.
When businesses cannot predict how policies or rules may change, investment decisions can slow down. Long-term planning becomes more difficult, and confidence can weaken.
For business leaders, trust is therefore no longer just a value discussed in boardrooms.
It is becoming a practical competitive advantage.
Companies that build dependable relationships, maintain clear policies and create confidence among partners can be better prepared when markets become uncertain.
The same principle applies to business dependencies. Companies are increasingly trying to identify weaknesses before those weaknesses turn into serious problems.
Competing When Certainty Is Limited
The global business environment remains highly uncertain.
The war in Iran has made the energy challenge more serious. At the same time, the stakes around AI have increased as the consequences of making the wrong technology decisions become more significant.
The challenge to the postwar rules-based order has also added another layer of uncertainty.
Despite this, there is some reason for optimism.
It comes from how business leaders are responding.
Rather than waiting for calmer conditions, many are strengthening their organisations now. They are reducing dependence on individual suppliers and technology providers, diversifying their operations and paying greater attention to trust and reliability.
The lesson is becoming clear.
Businesses cannot always control what happens around them. But they can control how prepared they are when conditions change.
The companies that build resilience today may have a stronger advantage in the years ahead.
The future of competitiveness may therefore depend less on how efficiently a business operates under normal conditions and more on how confidently it can navigate when those conditions suddenly change.
