Adapting business to global shifts: Guide for market leaders

Business in 2026 feels like playing chess while someone rewrites the rules. Geopolitical chaos reshapes supply chains overnight, AI scrambles competitive advantages, and climate pressures demand operational overhauls nobody saw coming five years ago. 

Knowing there's a problem and doing something about it are very different things. This piece looks at what market leaders can actually do to stay ahead when the ground keeps shifting.

Corporate transformation moves faster than it did during the dot-com boom. What used to take years happens in months now.

Traditional strategic planning doesn't work anymore. Nobody takes five-year plans seriously when GenAI models double their capabilities every eight months. OpenAI went from launching ChatGPT to putting AGI on corporate board agendas in under two years.

This is where professional business transformation advisory services from companies like DXC Technology make a difference. Their approach combines industry knowledge with technology implementation to build adaptive decision-making systems instead of generic consulting decks.

Generative AI moved past the hype phase. Microsoft dumped $13 billion into OpenAI and now GPT-4 runs through Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Salesforce built Einstein GPT to automate CRM content. JPMorgan Chase made their own LLM called IndexGPT for investment analysis.

Quantum computing left the research lab. IBM's Quantum Network has over 200 organizations including Mercedes-Benz testing quantum algorithms for EV batteries. Google's Willow chip with 70 qubits from 2023 opened doors for practical cryptography and drug discovery applications.

Edge computing transformed industrial IoT. Siemens rolled out edge solutions across 37 factories, cutting data latency from 200 milliseconds to 8. Real-time quality control through computer vision became possible.

Global trade is fragmenting fast. "Friendshoring" — moving production to politically safe countries — went mainstream. Apple shifted iPhone production from China to India and Vietnam. They made 14% of iPhones in India during 2024.

Major shifts happening now:

• Platform operations replacing linear value chains
• Subscriptions instead of one-time product sales
• Regional production hubs over global factories
• Turning operational data into sellable products
• Closed-loop resource systems

Adobe went from perpetual licenses to Creative Cloud and saw market cap jump from $30 billion to $240 billion in nine years. Tesla charges $199 monthly for Full Self-Driving, creating recurring revenue on top of car sales.

Schneider Electric's "EcoStruxure" platform for IoT energy management brings in 70% of their revenue. They're not selling equipment anymore — they run an ecosystem.

Hierarchies can't keep up. Spotify's "squad model" — autonomous cross-functional teams acting like internal startups — caught on fast. ING Bank reorganized 3,500 people into 350 squads and cut product launch time from 9 months to 3.

Hybrid work isn't temporary anymore. Shopify sold their offices, went "digital by default," and hired top talent from 47 countries using virtual collaboration tools and asynchronous work.

Netflix lets teams make 80% of decisions without executive approval. They run over 250 A/B tests monthly on everything from recommendation algorithms to thumbnail images.

Amazon uses "disagree and commit" — speak up if you disagree, but commit fully once a decision gets made. Execution speeds up when you cut endless approval loops.

What adaptive organizations have:

• Decentralized decisions with clear ownership
• Analytics embedded at every level for data-driven choices
• Continuous reskilling programs
• Agile governance instead of waterfall bureaucracy
• Transparent communication across hierarchy levels

Legacy systems are both stability and limitation. Banks show this clearly — COBOL still runs 43% of U.S. banking systems, but finding developers who know it gets harder every year.

The Strangler Fig Pattern — gradually replacing old components without stopping operations — became the enterprise standard. British Airways migrated to cloud over four years, modernizing one service monthly to avoid catastrophic failures.

API-first architecture creates a layer between old and new. PayPal's API gateway connects 200+ microservices with their legacy core, handling 4 billion transactions yearly without downtime.

Hybrid and multi-cloud setups dominate. Gartner thinks 85% of organizations will use at least two cloud providers by end of 2025. Protection against vendor lock-in plus redundancy.

Ford put $2 billion into cloud infrastructure on Google Cloud and AWS for connected vehicles. Data from 3.6 million cars gets processed in real-time for predictive maintenance and OTA updates.

Modernization checkpoints:

• Full audit of current tech stack and dependencies
• Business case for each component — migrate, modernize, or retire
• Pilot non-critical systems first
• Run old and new systems in parallel with gradual traffic shifts
• Monitoring and rollback plans ready

Data democratization means giving analytical tools to everyone, not just data science teams. Airbnb built "Data University" where any employee learns SQL and basic analytics. Now 65% of business decisions use data instead of gut feeling.

Predictive maintenance is standard in manufacturing now. GE Digital's Predix platform analyzes turbines, engines, and industrial gear. Clients cut unplanned downtime 35%, saving millions in repairs.

Customer 360 view actually works. Coca-Cola's AI analyzes 1.9 billion daily consumer interactions to optimize product mix by market. In Mexico, local flavors boosted market share 4%.

Synthetic data solves privacy problems. JP Morgan generates fake transaction data to train fraud detection without touching real customer information.

Fractional executives — part-time top managers — are taking off. Startups hire CFOs or CTOs for 2-3 days weekly, getting expertise without full-time costs.

Gig economy hit white-collar work. Toptal and Andela connect senior engineers and architects for project work. 

Boomerang employees became normal. Adobe's alumni network generates 15% of new hires. These people adapt faster and bring outside experience.

BlackRock manages $10 trillion and demands carbon footprint transparency from portfolio companies. Investors follow through — high ESG-rated companies perform 4.7% better.

Carbon accounting is becoming routine like financial reporting. Microsoft committed to carbon negative by 2030, investing $1 billion in their Climate Innovation Fund. Emissions already down 6.3% despite business growth.

Pure financial metrics don't cut it anymore. Balanced Scorecard adds adaptability, innovation speed, and resilience metrics.

Time-to-market became critical. Tesla releases OTA updates every 2-3 weeks, constantly improving vehicles. Traditional automakers with yearly cycles lose this race.

Customer Lifetime Value replaced transactional metrics. Peloton's business runs on retention — hardware has minimal margin, subscriptions generate 67% gross profit with 92% retention.

Modern measurement:

• Innovation velocity — successful pilots yearly
• Digital adoption rate — processes through digital channels
• Employee Net Promoter Score for culture assessment
• Carbon intensity — emissions per revenue dollar
• System uptime and mean recovery time

Spotify's "Squad Health Check" qualitatively assesses team health across 11 parameters from autonomy to mission clarity. Data identifies improvement areas, not performance punishment.

Adapting to global shifts takes endurance, not speed. Companies treating change as a chance to rethink fundamentals can do more than survive — they can set the rules. Technology, culture, processes, and people transform together or not at all. Market leaders get it: the real risk is being unprepared.

This article was written in cooperation with DXC.com