The Rehearsal Gap: Insights From 112 Senior Executives on Geopolitics and Leadership
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Gibraltar: Wednesday, 23 September 2026 – 11:30 CEST
The Rehearsal Gap: Insights From 112 Senior Executives on Geopolitics and Leadership – Report & Analysis
GEÓ Intel: By: Iain Fraser – Security Editor
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The Rehearsal Gap: Insights From 112 Senior Executives on Geopolitics and Leadership
Leadership teams now speak fluently about geopolitical risk, but many still do not practise for it. That is the central lesson from Stanton Chase’s September 2026 findings, which suggest that geopolitical awareness has risen faster than institutional preparedness. For GEÓ readers, the significance is not simply that executives are worried. It is that many organisations are still making strategic decisions without having rehearsed how they would respond when geopolitical conditions abruptly change.
Below is a structured analysis of what the findings imply for boards, executive teams and European decision-makers.
Why This Matters
This survey matters because it reveals a gap between recognition and readiness.
Stanton Chase reports that 77% of organisations were taken by surprise by a geopolitical event in the past year, 49% changed an already approved decision because of geopolitical uncertainty, and 55% have never run a structured geopolitical stress test with their leadership team. Those three figures are the story.
What that tells us
* Many organisations still treat geopolitics as an external hazard, not an operational variable.
* Leadership teams are being forced to revise decisions after approval, which signals weak anticipatory planning.
* Stress testing remains underused even though geopolitical disruption now affects pricing, supply chains, regulation, capital allocation and talent mobility.
* In plain English: the boardroom sees the storm cloud, but too often has not rehearsed what to do when it rains sideways.
What the Stanton Chase Findings Show
The Stanton Chase page is a preview of a larger report, but the headline data already offers a useful diagnostic.
Core findings cited from the source
According to Stanton Chase:
* 77%of organisations were “taken by surprise by a geopolitical event in the past year.”
* 49%of leadership teams “delayed, revisited, or reversed a decision that had already been approved because of geopolitical uncertainty.”
* 55%have “never run a structured geopolitical stress test” with their leadership team.
On leadership capabilities, cost discipline ranked highest at 51%, while cross-border leadership ranked lowest at 19% among capabilities growing in importance.
18% of organisations now favour local leaders over relocating executives across borders when hiring senior leaders.
What stands out analytically
The first three findings speak to preparedness failure. The latter two speak to adaptation pressure.
That combination matters. It suggests companies are responding to geopolitical turbulence by tightening control, controlling cost and localising leadership choices, while still underinvesting in structured scenario rehearsal. That is a rational short-term instinct, but it can become strategically brittle if cost discipline displaces geopolitical imagination.
Strategic Interpretation for GEÓ Readers
For European leaders, the deeper issue is not surprise alone. It is the institutional habit of under-rehearsal.
Boards and executive committees
If more than half of leadership teams have never run a formal geopolitical stress test, many boards are still treating geopolitical disruption as something to monitor rather than something to simulate. That is a problem because the real cost of geopolitical shocks often comes from second-order effects:
* sanctions compliance shifts
* energy or logistics disruption
* sudden regulatory divergence
* talent relocation constraints
* cyber retaliation or supply-chain concentration risk
The Stanton Chase summary explicitly notes that executives worry about predicting knock-on effects more than the event itself. That is a crucial point. In practice, firms rarely fail because they missed the headline. They fail because they underestimated the chain reaction.
Leadership and talent
Another important signal is the capability ranking. It is striking that cost discipline leads while cross-border leadership trails. In a more fragmented world, that could prove shortsighted.
Cost discipline is essential, especially in inflationary or uncertain environments. But if geopolitical fragmentation is becoming structural, then organisations also need leaders who can:
* operate across regulatory regimes
* manage politically sensitive supply networks
* interpret local political signals
* navigate cultural and legal divergence under pressure
If cross-border leadership is deprioritised just as global complexity rises, firms may become leaner and less strategically agile at the same time.
Localisation of leadership
The finding that 18% of organisations prefer local leaders over relocating executives across borders is modest in raw percentage terms, but symbolically important. It suggests some companies are beginning to adjust leadership architecture to a world where mobility is more politically, legally and reputationally complex.
That has implications for:
* succession planning
* regional autonomy
* crisis responsiveness
* local stakeholder management
It may also reflect a subtle retreat from the assumption that global management talent can always be moved frictionlessly across jurisdictions. That assumption looks increasingly vintage.
The takeaway from the table is straightforward: organisations are adapting, but unevenly. They are recognising the pressure, yet many are still not building the internal muscle memory required to respond coherently.
Implications for European Business and Policy
For GEÓ audience, three implications stand out.
1. Geopolitical competence is becoming a board skill
This is no longer a specialist advisory topic. If nearly half of approved decisions are later revisited because of geopolitical uncertainty, then geopolitical literacy is now part of mainstream governance.
2. Scenario rehearsal is becoming a competitive advantage
Companies that practise crisis response before disruption occurs will move faster, communicate better and preserve more strategic optionality. The Stanton Chase material indicates that the full report includes cross-tabulations showing prepared teams respond faster. That is exactly what one would expect, and it is where resilience turns from slogan into operating edge.
3. Talent strategy is now part of geopolitical strategy
Where leaders are based, how mobile they are, and whether local or expatriate leadership models dominate are no longer purely HR questions. They are now part of geopolitical operating design.
Recommendations for Leadership Teams
The practical lesson is not simply to worry more elegantly. It is to institutionalise rehearsal.
Immediate actions
Run a board-level geopolitical stress test within the next planning cycle.
Map second-order vulnerabilities, not just direct exposure, including logistics, sanctions, cyber and regulatory interdependence.
Review approval processes for major capital, market-entry or sourcing decisions to ensure geopolitical triggers are built in before sign-off.
Reassess leadership capability frameworks so that cross-border judgement is not crowded out by cost-control incentives.
Examine executive location strategy for key regional roles, especially in politically sensitive or fragmented markets.
Create a standing geopolitical rehearsal cadence rather than treating crisis exercises as one-off events.
These are not luxuries. They are now basic governance hygiene.
Looking Ahead
The Stanton Chase findings point to a broader shift in corporate life. Geopolitical risk is no longer episodic background noise; it is becoming a routine force in executive decision-making. Yet many teams still appear to operate with an outdated assumption that awareness alone is preparedness.
It is not.
The rehearsal gap is ultimately a leadership gap. Organisations that fail to simulate disruption are more likely to be surprised by it, reverse decisions under pressure and prioritise efficiency over resilience at precisely the wrong moment. In a world of sanctions shocks, border friction, regulatory fragmentation and strategic coercion, the ability to rehearse may become one of the clearest markers of executive seriousness.
FAQ´s
Here are the most relevant strategic questions this raises for informed readers.
Why does a geopolitical stress test matter if leaders already monitor world events?
Monitoring tells you what is happening. Stress testing tells you how your organisation would respond if the situation suddenly altered pricing, supply chains, executive mobility or regulatory exposure. The Stanton Chase findings suggest many teams are doing the first without consistently practising the second.
What is the biggest signal in the survey?
The strongest signal is the gap between awareness and preparation. If 77% were caught off guard and 55% have never run a structured stress test, then geopolitical risk is being recognised conceptually faster than it is being operationalised.
Why does the low ranking for cross-border leadership matter?
Because geopolitical fragmentation increases the need for leaders who can operate across political, legal and cultural boundaries. If firms prioritise cost discipline while underweighting cross-border capability, they may become more efficient in the short term but less adaptable in a fractured global environment.
FAQ Method Codicil:
These FAQs are written to reflect how informed readers genuinely phrase questions in search engines, AI assistants and public discussion forums. Unless live-source research is explicitly conducted, the questions are editorially synthesised from likely search intent and recurring public discussion patterns rather than directly extracted from live Reddit or Quora threads. All answers follow GEO’s evidence-led editorial standards.
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