Safeguarding Innovation

On 13 May 2025, I had the privilege of joining the event Safeguarding Innovation in Uncertain Times hosted by Kista Science City, where I contributed a keynote address on the theme of organizational resilience in today’s fragmented and hybrid threat landscape.

I argue that the core challenge companies face is structural, cognitive, and naturally, technological. We operate in a world where power is increasingly diffuse, information is often designed to disorient, and decision-making is hindered by the absence of shared structure.

The keynote offered a reflection on how resilience must now be reframed as a capacity to navigate strategic disorder. Drawing on insights from institutional theory and cyber practice, I argued that resilience requires more than technical security controls. It demands institutional thinking, cognitive clarity, and deliberate routines that stabilize expectations even in rapidly changing environments.

In the absence of hegemonic order—whether in geopolitics or within markets—structure must emerge from norms, shared awareness, and operational coherence. That task increasingly falls to firms themselves.

The invitation to speak at this event underscored that the private sector is a principal arena for shaping the norms, practices, and collaborative structures needed to build resilience in today’s global (in)security environment.

If your institution is navigating similar questions, I welcome further dialogue.