22-JAN-2026
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed world leaders in Davos, Switzerland this week, and he didn’t mince words. The global economic and political order as we knew them are gone.
“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” says Carney. “Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.”
During a transition, you can see and anticipate the future.
A rupture is different. It represents collapse. Severe disruption. And no clear sense of what comes next.
How do companies, industries and organizations navigate the global economic rupture we are experiencing? What tools can we use to prepare for an uncertain future?
The first thing for everyone to understand is this: none of this is going to be easy. There are going to be enormous costs. Entire industries may suffer, or even disappear. Canada’s auto industry, for example, is facing existential threats. It will be painful.
The good news is that there are some tools to put in place that will lessen the blow.
Know your story. For Canada, this means reconnecting with its roots as a trading nation. Over the decades, we’ve drifted into an extreme dependence on one trading partner. The reason was simple: it was a massive, friendly and reliable partner. That’s shifted. So now, we need to double down on diversifying trade with other partners.
For individual businesses and industries, it’s equally important to know your story. What unique proposition does your company contribute? Where did your company come from, and where is it going? What is the core purpose of your industry? These are not easy questions to answer, but they’re essential if we want to navigate our way through this current rupture.
Look at the problem from different angles. It’s easy and tempting to be nostalgic in times of rupture. For Canada, there is a sense that all we need is to renegotiate the free trade agreement, and get back to the good ol’ days. But as Prime Minister Carney also warned, “Nostalgia is not a strategy.”
Instead, companies and industries need to let go of the past, and look at the challenges with different perspectives. As Einstein famously said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Build human connection. This is perhaps the most critical tool of all. In a world that feels extremely uncertain and uncomfortable, both because of artificial intelligence and also the geopolitical ruptures we are seeing, strengthening human relationships will be our best line of attack. Carney also emphasized this when he called for medium-sized global economic powers to unite and act in a coordinated way. In short, build human connection.
The same principle applies to individual companies. Know your team. Know your senior leaders. Know your clients. And even know your competitors. Build human connection with them. The more disconnected we allow ourselves to become – either through A.I., automated systems, remote work, or whatever it is – the more brittle we become.
