Building Resilience in Today's Geopolitical Storm

Organised by Professor Dana Minbaeva, King's Business School, and Dr William il‑Kuk Kang, Alliance Manchester Business School.

The contemporary global business environment is defined by compounding disruptions — geopolitical instability, technological transformation, and complex societal challenges that demand both analytical rigour and strategic agility from leaders at every level. This half-day programme brings together world-leading scholars in international business, strategic management, and organisational resilience to address one of the most pressing challenges facing firms and individuals today: how to build the adaptive capacity needed to not merely survive, but thrive, amid sustained uncertainty. Drawing on cutting-edge research and evidence-based frameworks, the programme examines how individuals and organisations can strengthen resilience, manage cross-border complexity, and respond effectively to crises ranging from geopolitical volatility to disruptive innovation.

Structured across two substantive sessions and a concluding panel, the programme offers participants both conceptual tools and practical insights for navigating an era of geopolitical storm. The first session explores individual and organisational resilience by examining the human and strategic dimensions of coping with disruption, from the COVID-19 pandemic to AI-driven change and climate-related uncertainty. The second session turns to the specific challenge of operating across borders in an environment of high geopolitical uncertainty, equipping participants with frameworks for making sense of geopolitical risk and managing internationally in conditions of intense institutional and technological flux. This is an essential programme for thinkers, executives, and policymakers seeking a rigorous, research-grounded understanding of resilience in its fullest strategic sense

Info: Our near- and long-term future will be shaped by our capacity to build resilience and respond effectively to crises and external disruptions – ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical instability to disruptive technologies such as AI and complex societal challenges like climate change. In this session, we will examine how individuals and organizations can strengthen resilience, cope with uncertainty, and adapt successfully in the face of future disruptions

Info: In today’s world characterised by high geopolitical uncertainty, operating across borders successfully has become more difficult than ever. But how can we make sense of the impact of geopolitics on business? During this session you will encounter some tools for successfully managing businesses in an environment that is highly competitive and full of technological and institutional change.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher AIB Conference Manchester 2026