By Kevin Manne

Is your company building what the future requires or is it just getting better at what the past rewarded? Or worse, are you doubling down on past success, not realizing it may be what’s holding you back?

Thomas Ulbrich, EMBA ’06, president and CEO of Goodwill of Western New York, posed those questions to attendees at this year’s Center for Leadership and Global Impact conference. There, leaders from the region and across the world gathered to explore how individuals, teams and organizations can thrive in adversity. 

“Most organizations don’t recognize they’re off course until it’s too late because the numbers still look good right up until they don’t,” says Ulbrich. “Activity feels like progress. Urgency feels like leadership. But without directional clarity, leaders are reacting, not leading.”

According to Dorothy Siaw-Asamoah, clinical professor of organization and human resources, and faculty director of the school’s Center for Leadership and Global Impact, the relentless pace of disruption is what’s keeping leaders up at night these days.

“Economic shifts, geopolitical instability, artificial intelligence and where the technology fits — leaders have to be alert and make high-stakes decisions about all of these with incomplete information, and that can be exhausting,” she says. “When you make decisions with so much uncertainty, you may need to change course tomorrow based on new information, and that can erode trust.”

Across industries, leaders need strategies for innovation and success amid today’s disruptions in technology, the economy and sustainability. In the School of Management, researchers are identifying structural issues and developing best practices for building systems that can adapt. 

“Leadership development is economic development. It is social development. It is human development,” says Siaw-Asamoah. “And when we invest in how people lead organizations, we invest in the health of our institutions, whether regionally, nationally or globally.”

As chief information officer and senior vice president of customer operations at National Fuel, Martin Krebs, BS ’93, works to balance technological innovation with the company’s core values of safety and excellence.

When it comes to AI, that means tinkering with ever-evolving tools in isolated environments so he can rapidly evaluate the tech without the risk.

“I try to lead by example by using these tools myself, as well as making sure we understand why we’re doing this,” says Krebs. “It’s critical to know how we tie these initiatives back to the mission as well as the expected value proposition. And, instead of just sinking more and more resources into something that’s not working: fail fast. Build a safe space where your team can say, ‘We thought this was going to be great, but it’s not,’ and move on.”

He also says to be mindful of how you’re measuring the success of technology-related tools.

For example, when his team at National Fuel implemented an AI-backed tool to help its call center agents find information faster when speaking with customers on the phone, they expected the payoff to be reduced call times. But the times didn’t change at all.

“Rather than scrapping the project, we listened to our agents to find out why they liked the tool,” says Krebs. “The real value turned out to be building agent confidence, which resulted in far fewer interruptions to colleagues. We were measuring the wrong thing. The people closest to the work often know where the value actually is, and leaders need to listen to them.”

Kate Bezrukova, associate professor of organization and human resources, has studied the emergence of AI as a team member, as well as group and organizational faultlines, how AI can help self-employed workers and more.

She says that while the productivity gains of AI are real, leaders need to accommodate a range of acceptance from their employees — with an eye toward the future.

“The choice leaders give their employees with discretion is important,” she says. “They also need to support innovation and cultivate the mindset of the continuous learner, because things are changing quickly and if you’re stuck with an ingrained mindset, you’re going to fall behind.”

Beyond AI, the other big technological shift impacting the workplace has been the move to remote and hybrid work. Bezrukova says that while many leaders may instinctually push for employees to return to the office to build a sense of belonging and team identity, research has revealed benefits to remote work as well.

“If the existing organizational culture is toxic with too much competitive and political behavior, people will withdraw and seek remote and hybrid work as a way to survive,” says Bezrukova. “Strong team culture comes from principles of transparency, justice and fairness. And for Gen Z and younger employees, being remote will feel natural if the workplace culture is good.”

Sustainability can be among the first areas to take cuts when volatility hits a business, as focus shifts to quarterly results rather than the long term.

But no matter what the global or economic situation may be, sustainability continues to be a smart business move, according to Aditya Vedantam, associate professor of operations management and strategy.

“It’s important at this stage for companies to invest in resilience — not simply because it aligns with sustainability, but because it can pay long-term dividends,” says Vedantam. “Companies affected by tariffs, particularly those reliant on global supply chains, should consider nearshoring strategies that shift assembly and key suppliers closer to manufacturing plants. These strategies can also support sustainability goals by reducing the need to ship products across the globe, while lowering the firm’s overall risk profile.”

When it comes to technology, Vedantam says that there are real sustainability challenges to face, along with opportunities.

“There is work to be done to reduce the energy dependence of AI, particularly reducing dependence on fossil fuels,” he says. “AI data centers are increasingly being connected to microgrids powered by renewable energy, reducing their additional burden on residential power grids.”

In addition, he says technology can help address sustainability challenges, such as AI and analytics for tracking carbon across supply chains, digital traceability tools to verify raw material sourcing and consumer-facing sustainability claims and internet-connected devices to measure emissions in real time.

“The firms that succeed in the future will be the ones that use data, operations and incentives to make sustainability economically viable at scale,” he says.

At Rich Products, Michelle Philbin, MBA ’15, serves as senior global sustainability manager, where she works to build long-term resilience strategies considering both financial impact and environmental sustainability.

In her role, she evaluates how decisions will impact both areas across the value chain: where Rich Products lives, where it works and where it sources.

“When I think about the impact of something like AI, I’m constantly asking two questions: what’s right for the world around us environmentally, and what’s right for Rich’s to stay around as a successful business that can employ people for the future,” she says. “Those two things have to work together.”

Across the business, Philbin says that almost every decision that looks right in one area creates a cost somewhere else, and the job of a sustainability leader is to map and measure those competing impacts honestly.

For example, on the product side of the multinational food products company, she says it’s critical to consider what ingredients to use for quality and functionality, as well as where they are sourced.

“Certain types of ingredients like palm oil can be vilified, but if you are sourcing responsibly from farmers using the right practices, it’s no worse than any other oil you might be acquiring,” says Philbin. “So, when you’re making decisions for your business, take that approach and understand the benefits and drawbacks and then set the infrastructure to deploy it in a sustainable way that makes sense for your business.”

Amid tariff uncertainty, persistent inflation, shifting interest rates and post-pandemic supply chain disruption, volatility may actually be leveling the playing field for businesses.

According to Anand Nandkumar, professor of operations management and strategy, companies that align innovation to financial strategy are the ones that will survive and compete in an era of accelerating disruption.

“Innovation is valuable, and companies are strategically prioritizing innovation, but the lifespan of companies is dropping,” says Nandkumar. “I’ve spoken to a lot of executives and they’re saying that there have always been shocks, like the dot-com bubble in 2000 or the 2008 financial crisis, but they used to be less frequent. So, it’s not about setting yourself up for relatively infrequent shocks, it’s about living in a world full of shocks.”

But while most companies prioritize innovation, they still struggle to make it happen. Through his research, Nandkumar found four ways to turn that around:

• Start by understanding what your shareholders actually need and build your innovation plan around that, not the other way around.
• Place small bets on many new ideas instead of just one or two big ones, and be sure your current business stays strong so it can fund those new ideas.
• Keep your new, experimental teams separate from your main business so they have room to try things, but don’t cut them off completely.
• And finally, stop only rewarding results. Reward people for trying, experimenting and learning. Hire fast learners, not just people with impressive résumés.

Throughout his career of more than 40 years, Kevin Murray, BS ’83, partner at Wexford Capital Partners, and CEO of Fuse Sport Inc., has weathered many economic storms and sees parallels between today’s economic environment and previous disruption.

“History has taught me numerous times that you always come out of it,” he says. “You go into a situation thinking it could be the worst outcome ever — and sometimes when you’re in the thick of it, it feels that way — but you continue to come out stronger as a nation and even globally time and time again.”

Looking ahead, Murray says leaders should prepare for continued disruption from AI, workforce evolution as entry-level roles continue to shift, and geopolitical and supply chain risk through overreliance on single-source suppliers for resources like energy and semiconductors.

In the end, he says the leaders who stay curious and optimistic are the ones who will thrive in disruptive times.

“Don’t view adversity as totally negative,” says Murray. “Some of the best opportunities come out of uncertainty if you can figure out how to take advantage of it. It may just be your opportunity to look at things in a totally new way.”

Leveraging a foundation of high-impact scholarship, the School of Management's Center for Leadership and Global Impact empowers agile leaders who learn locally — wherever they are — and think globally to drive transformative results in an interconnected world.

The center offers a wide range of programs for professionals, businesses, nonprofit organizations, executive leaders and students, including conflict management, executive and team coaching certification, the leadership accelerator program, leadership express, 360° assessments, team and leadership development, international education programs and more.

“We provide the space for academics and practitioners worldwide to come together to apply the school’s cutting-edge leadership research in practical ways,” says Dorothy Siaw-Asamoah, clinical professor of organization and human resources, and faculty director of the center. “We study scenarios, provide solutions and bring them to practice. And, in our classrooms, we connect students with international organizations to make real impact.”

Each spring, the center hosts an annual leadership conference, which serves as its marquee event, providing a daylong deep-dive into the pressing leadership challenges of the day with experts and attendees from across Western New York and around the world.

The 2026 conference focused on building resilient organizations and featured keynote presentations from Don Sandel, founder of GoPositiv, and Jade Cochran, program specialist in the Civil Society Division of United Nations Women. The event was sponsored by Rich Products, North Forest Office Space, the Western New York Sustainable Business Roundtable, the School of Management Alumni Association and UB Sustainability.

Looking ahead, the center plans to take that global ambition even further, alternating conference destinations internationally and domestically every other year and inviting participants to join wherever the conversation unfolds next.

“The leadership conference is our high-visibility event, but it’s just one moment. The work we do compounds throughout the year — the partnerships, the scholars and the global network,” says Siaw-Asamoah. “It’s a full-circle ecosystem of researchers, practitioners, community, students and faculty.”