Tariffs, Supply Chains, and Managing Through Disruption

As leaders navigate new tariffs and supply chain disruption, having an advisor to help your leaders spot new opportunities in the midst of uncertainty is vital. From aligning strategy with policy and managing the labor force to deciding on how to best use new tech for organizational resilience, these global experts are able to advise on what path you should take next for the longevity and growth of the business.

Tariffs

Precarious Ties: Navigating State-Business Relations in Authoritarian Asia

Meg Rithmire, Ph.D., (Harvard Business School) is a leading expert and award-winning authority on the reform and expansion of Chinese capitalism and its interaction with the rest of the world. She offers leaders vital knowledge about the effects China’s intricate economy has on trade today and the multifaceted intertwining of politics, the economy and international affairs in the global market.

Dan Wang Reveals Where China’s Tech Industry Is Today and Where It’s Going Tomorrow

Dan Wang (Stanford) is a top-cited expert on geopolitics, China and its technology strategies. He sheds light on the US-China trade war, tech innovation races including China’s regulatory actions – policies on everything from semiconductors to TikTok – and how AI and clean technology cannot be grasped without understanding China. Dan’s highly anticipated book, “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future” explores the contrast between the world’s two superpowers, America’s “lawyerly society” and China’s “engineering state.”

Is Capitalism Working?

Oren Cass, J.D., (Chief Economist of American Compass) is a leading economic policy adviser who is shaping modern conservative thought and the future of capitalism. He gives leaders an insider’s view of the Trump tariffs through the lens of the “new conservatives,” and helps politicians and business leaders understand the impacts of taxes, immigration and financialization on business and wages, guiding them toward strategies for aligning profit with the broader social good.

Clarifying the Global Picture for Strategic Leadership

Rawi Abdelal, Ph.D., (Harvard Business School) is one of today’s most trusted guides for leaders who are navigating geopolitical and economic instability. A sought-after expert on top-of-mind concerns for business leaders around the world, he illuminates how radical changes, from increasing polarization to tariffs and the fracturing of global supply chains, are transforming the foundations of international business and shaking leaders to their cores.

Supply Chains

The World’s Leading Expert on Crisis Preparedness, Response and Resilience

Juliette Kayyem (Harvard Kennedy School of Government) is the foremost authority on crisis management and resilience. At Harvard, she teaches the premier course on mitigating and managing crises and provides managers with the skills needed to harness an informed situational awareness when destabilizing events happen and anticipate and prepare for the pressures and disruptions that will surely arise.

Navigating the New Politics of Trade, Supply Chains and Green Energy

Jonas Nahm, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins) is a political economist, award-winning author and an expert on the global reordering of trade, supply chains and economic and industrial policy in the face of geopolitical fragmentation. Drawing on deep academic expertise and real-world policy experience, Nahm equips executives with practical frameworks to navigate uncertainty, assess supply chain resilience, and understand the long-term implications of tariffs, decoupling and techno-industrial competition.

How to Get All Hands On Tech to Power the AI Revolution

Tom Davenport, Ph.D., (Babson College, MIT) is one of the most widely published experts on AI. He teaches leaders how to use data to reach more customers, optimize supply chains, improve HR, build enterprise-level intelligence, and significantly exceed business goals by structuring analytics and AI to achieve greater ROI.

Manufacturing: State of the Industry

Gary Pisano, Ph.D., (Harvard) is an expert on commercializing science, manufacturing innovation and competitiveness. He emphasizes that the winners and losers of manufacturing technology are not determined by who is better at the tech. The differentiators are those who develop new organizational practices, processes, structures and business models that enable the maximum exploitation of the technology.

A Modern Blueprint for Operational Efficiency

Zeynep Ton, Ph.D., (MIT, co-founder of the Good Jobs Institute) is an award-winning operations strategist and one of the world’s top management thinkers and practitioners. Her profit-driving framework addresses modern challenges such as labor shortages and outdated operational models by centering customers in decision-making processes. This naturally leads to stable, dignified work conditions for employees, as seen in action through Ton’s successful collaborations with organizations including Quest Diagnostics and Sam’s Club.

America’s Tech Advantage and How to Keep It

Andrew McAfee, Ph.D., (MIT) is an award-winning, globally acclaimed researcher, and writer who offers organizations in every industry data-driven insights into existing and emerging tech trends. His work is particularly valuable to decision makers and innovators at financial institutions, manufacturers, health care organizations and government agencies, and to firms interested in emerging technologies that can streamline operations, enhance innovation and offer a competitive edge.

Preparing Leaders and Teams for the Future Impacts of Technology

Azeem Azhar (Oxford Martin School, Harvard Business School, founder of Exponential View,) is a technology futurist and top advisor to business, government and societal leaders across the globe. Addressing modern challenges of fluctuating energy prices, manufacturing costs and supply chain efficiency, he illustrates how exponential improvements in technology, including AI, communications networks, sensors, renewable electricity and more, will lead to great business opportunities and a bright future for humanity.

Managing Through Disruption

Lead Through the Fog of Uncertainty with Optimism

Scott D. Anthony (Dartmouth, Innosight) is an award-winning, globally renowned expert on navigating disruption ­– shifts that are much more than just everyday incremental changes. A passionate optimist, his experience working with organizations across sectors, from banking and legal services to governments and consumer goods, allows him to provide executives with strategies for finding the hidden opportunities in seemingly impossible choices. His next book, “Epic Disruptions,” is due out this September.

Leveraging AI: How to Create New Opportunities With the Latest Technology

Ranjay Gulati, Ph.D. (Harvard Business School) teaches executives how to forge a path of resilience, purpose and strong leadership that empowers organizations – and the people within – to prosper during good and bad times. One of the top management thinkers in the world, he offers strategies for creating new opportunities with emerging technology like AI and practical frameworks that help leaders build multi-faceted companies in today’s digital-first business world.

How Leaders Can Fuel Growth in a World With Finite Resources

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer, Ph.D., (Boston College) advises business and government leaders across the world on ways to leverage technology and innovation to drive long-term growth. His clear-headed predictions about the rising influence of AI, as well as his perspective on the role of governments, markets and digitalization in innovation processes, provide invaluable guidance in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Leading Through Uncertainty: A New Blueprint for the AI Era

This moment’s uncertain and increasingly AI-driven world must practice a new kind of leadership – one that is attuned, responsive and real, says Heidi Brooks, Ph.D. (Yale School of Management). A pioneer of the concept of “everyday leadership,” her practical framework shows leaders, teams and individuals how to transform organizations, and build a better future and improved experience of work.

Tariffs Are a Test of Crisis Leadership Skills

Gautam Mukunda, Ph.D., (Yale School of Management) is a globally renowned leadership expert, and technology and business analyst. Author of two remarkable books on leadership, he provides timely insight into some of the most influential topics of the day, from adapting to tariffs to the increasing financialization of business. His guidance helps leaders move more confidently into an uncertain future.

The Prepared Leader: How to Emerge from Crisis a Better Organization

Lynn Perry Wooten, Ph.D., (president of Simmons University) is a pioneering organizational strategy scholar and practitioner with particular expertise in competitive strategy and crisis management. She teaches leaders how to make effective, strategic decisions, see everyday crises as learning opportunities, and build collaborative workplace cultures.

The New Leadership Playbook: Navigating Complexity Without the Buzzwords

Christa Gyori (co-founder of Leaders on Purpose) is a globally recognized leadership strategist and CEO advisor. She equips executives with proven frameworks to lead through disruption, align strategy with long-term value, and unlock innovation through practical transformation. Her insights, rooted in exclusive research with 100+ global CEOs, help boards and C-suites navigate uncertainty, attract top talent, and prepare for what’s next.

Uncertainty Tolerance is a Skill We Need to Build

Elissa Epel, Ph.D., (University of California, San Francisco) is a leading voice in studying the impacts of self-care on psychological and physiological health, or how biology and the mind interconnect. She shows leaders how uncertainty affects not only our mood and stress, but even our decision-making process, and offers actionable ways to reduce stress, improve health, create positive personal and professional environments for all, and bolster institutional resilience.

The Future of Business Will Hinge on Successfully Leveraging Tech Tools

With a career spanning executive roles in HR, food service, retail, sports and more, Nigel Travis, senior advisor at Blackstone and former CEO of Dunkin’ and Papa John’s, has a track record of successfully managing billion-dollar brands that few others can match. A leader in efficiency through technology, his open innovation, positive engagement, and culture-building has helped iconic brands – including Burger King, Abercrombie & Fitch and Leyton Orient Football Club – both survive and thrive through challenging times by making the businesses operationally resilient, future-forward places where people want to work.

Lead AI Transformation and Build Resilience in an Uncertain World

Nathan Furr, Ph.D., (INSEAD) is one of the world’s foremost experts on AI and tech strategy as well as building resilience in times of uncertainty. A highly sought after advisor, he provides companies with clear-eyed strategies for taking the fear out of AI transformation, helps leaders get onboard with testing AI tools, learn from those tests, and bringing their organizations forward during the transformation journey.

Lead Through Uncertainty: Strategically Calibrate AI for Organizational Resilience

Mark Esposito, Ph.D., (Harvard, Georgetown) is an international authority on strategy and economics who helps leaders compete while capitalizing on current and future trends in artificial intelligence, resilient business models and sustainability. As AI becomes deeply embedded in our business ecosystems, Esposito’s frameworks enable leaders to calibrate their AI-driven strategies, maximize value creation under volatility, and future-proof their organizations in an era of constant flux.

When geopolitics, trade and international business practices become increasingly uncertain, it’s crucial for organizations to get expert insights so they can adequately prepare for anything the future holds. Stern Strategy Group connects you with renowned thought leaders whose insights, strategies and management frameworks help organizations fuel growth and disruptive innovation to better compete in a constantly changing world. Let us arrange for these esteemed experts to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting sessions, workshops and keynotes.