In Q2 2025, tariff volatility and regulatory shifts have evolved from a “trade” concern to a core business performance variable. For management teams, the implications reach across finance, operations, and strategy. The companies that outperform are those that treat regulatory shocks as operational scenarios to rehearse, not surprises to react to.
In Q2 2025, tariff volatility and regulatory shifts have become a defining force in enterprise strategy — no longer a “trade” issue, instead a board-level risk. The most sophisticated multinationals are now deploying structured stress-testing frameworks to model “policy shock” scenarios: tariff spikes, export control expansions, carbon border pricing, and compliance detentions. These models link granular HS-code exposure, supplier geography, and product carbon intensity to real-time profit-and-loss simulations —quantifying the margin at risk and working capital requirements under each regulatory outcome. For directors, the strategic question is shifting from “Where should we produce?” to “How fast can we re-position when the rules change?”
For small and mid-sized manufacturers, sustainability assessments like EcoVadis can initially seem like compliance hurdles. However, for Tessy Plastics, a U.S.-based injection molding company, embracing EcoVadis became a catalyst for significant business transformation and revenue growth.
Deferred maintenance has evolved from operational challenge to enterprise-level risk. Collectively, U.S. colleges and universities face a staggering $112 billion in urgent deferred renewal needs, with Moody’s projecting $750–950 billion in spending required over the next decade just for rated institutions to modernize and stabilize backlogs. In a recent survey, 36% of chief financial officers (CFO) cite maintenance as a top risk. The average age of campus buildings is approximately 50 years, with many facilities already having surpassed their intended life spans. This aging infrastructure is reflected in Facility Condition Index (FCI) scores, where many systems report values greater than 0.10 — the commonly accepted threshold for “poor condition.”
Water is rapidly emerging as a defining business case in U.S. real estate, yet it remains largely under-considered in most investment and operational strategies. Scarcity, flooding, infrastructure failures, rising water costs, and regulatory tightening are already impacting asset values, insurance costs, and development feasibility. With half the global population projected to live in water-stressed regions by 2030 and U.S. cities already integrating water stewardship for future developments, proactive water management is becoming a crucial competitive differentiator and financial imperative for real estate leaders.
Real Estate Brief: Water – The overlooked business imperative in real estate Read More »
Large multinationals are moving from pledges to procurement and projects — locking in long-dated clean power contracts, electrifying heat and fleets, re-tooling supply chains, and backing carbon removal. More broadly, the global energy transition to renewable technologies remains intact, but uneven. Global energy investment will reach $3.3 trillion USD in 2025, with $2.2 trillion being invested in renewables, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency, and electrification (which stands at 2x fossil investment). On a dual-track energy system — adding clean energy capacity without fully displacing fossil fuels — China, the EU, India, and the U.S. continue to drive most of the additions.
The passage of The Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA) on Friday, July 4th, marks a decisive recalibration of U.S. clean-energy policy and incentive structure—elevating urgency, compliance, and strategic flexibility for corporations. The upending of financial incentives create a real-time operational challenge. Boards must respond by aligning capital schedules, fortifying supply chains, and taking out cost from their decarbonization strategies. How should enterprises evolve their capital allocation for operational effectiveness, ESG targets, and financial return?
Geopolitical volatility, shifting trade policies, and rising tariffs are redefining supply chain risk. More than ever, agility and transparency raise to the top of board and management’s priorities. Generative artificial intelligence offers powerful tools—predictive insights, scenario modeling, and real-time visibility—that can help enterprises anticipate shocks, ensure compliance, and sustain continuity. Moreover, agentic AI will allow companies to deploy “self-driving” supply chains to hasten decision-making and realize greater benefits of timeliness, cost-containment, and more. The challenge for directors is not whether to adopt AI, but how to govern its integration: ensuring management has the data infrastructure, talent, and oversight to capture value.
Quantum computing is moving fast from theoretical promise to boardroom strategy. With venture funding topping $2.6 billion globally in 2024, of which $1.7 billion went to U.S. companies, U.S. multinationals are launching quantum pilots and assessing their risks to encryption threats. Whether it’s big tech, pharmaceutical, or energy, if fully commercialized, analysts estimate a $2 trillion economic impact by 2035. Can your organization gain the quantum advantage?
Board series: Entering the Quantum Economy – What boards need to know in 2025 Read More »
With broad policy upheaval in the U.S. under President Trump’s second term, Sustainability Committees on corporate boards stand on shaky ground. The administration has effectively terminated and significant allocations for renewable energy, retreated from the Paris Agreement, spurred ESG-backlash, weakened the EPA, NOAA, and SEC mandates. At the same time, the global momentum for ESG and Sustainability persists. Even if the political momentum is going in one direction, board members will have to balance the reality of climate, social, litigation, and governance risks remain financially material and globally governed.