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Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Climate
- Boston Globe
See photos of the destructive wildfires in southern Europe
In central Albania, four villages were evacuated near a former army ammunition depot. Farther south in the Korca district, close to the Greek border, explosions erupted from buried World War II-era shells. Authorities say dozens of homes in the country's central region have been reduced to rubble. Here's a glimpse at the destruction left in the wildfires' wake: Advertisement Wildfire burns behind a cemetery in Tsoukalaiika of Achaia, Peloponnese, Greece on Wednesday. MENELAOS MICHALATOS/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images Firefighters use construction machinery during efforts to extinguish a wildfire near the city of Patras, western Greece on Wednesday. ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images Burned cars are seen at an impound lot in Kato Achaia, during a wildfire near Patras city, western Greece, Wednesday. Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press Firefighters and others try to control a wildfire approaching a house in Patras city, western Greece, Wednesday. Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press A firefighter helicopter seen flying over a wildfire in Patras city, western Greece, Wednesday. Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press A man took away goats during a wildfire in Vounteni, on the outskirts of Patras, western Greece, Wednesday. Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press A firefighting helicopter sprayed water over a wildfire near the city of Patras, western Greece on Wednesday. ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images A burned hill is seen from above in Kaminia seaside village, during a wildfire near Patras city, western Greece, Wednesday. Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press Burning trees are pictured during a wildfire in Carcastillo, northern Spain, Sunday. Eduardo Sanz/Associated Press Smoke from a wildfire covers the sky as firefighting aircrafts fly over the village of Kato Achaia near Patras city, western Greece, Tuesday. Andreas Alexopoulos/Associated Press A firefighter airplane drops water on a wildfire near the village of Abejera in Zamora province on Wednesday. CESAR MANSO/AFP via Getty Images Firefighters battle a wildfire near the village of Abejera in Zamora province on Wednesday. CESAR MANSO/AFP via Getty Images William Reed can be reached at
Forbes
22-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
To Navigate Today's Chaos, Lengthen Your Time Horizon
TOPSHOT - A cargo ship sails on the Mediterranean sea during a thunderstorm. (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS ... More / AFP) (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images) When experiencing crises and extreme turbulence, most executives become more short term—but the most successful leaders do the opposite. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella transformed a struggling tech giant into a $3 trillion powerhouse by extending his strategic vision when he took over a threatened business. Today's executives are facing extreme chaos. Each morning brings new headlines: supply chains broken by tariffs, financial markets shaken by economic turbulence, geopolitical alliances dissolving overnight. Even once-stable institutions—courts, universities, governments, media organizations—now face unprecedented pressure. How do leaders navigate such volatile conditions? Satya Nadella faced similar challenges when he took over as Microsoft's CEO in 2014. PC sales were plummeting, mobile competitors were taking market share, and cloud computing was making the business model obsolete. Instead of frantically making short-term fixes, Nadella looked to the horizon—transforming Microsoft into one of the world's most valuable companies. Nadella demonstrated the counterintuitive notion that when facing chaos, resist the temptation to turn inward and look for immediate solutions. Instead, do the opposite—extend your vision beyond the immediate turmoil to gain strategic clarity and stability. During persistent turbulence, a person's brain responds often by undermining the person's ability to make good decisions. The brain's threat detection system—designed for physical dangers—floods the mind with stress hormones, triggering what neuroscientist Evian Gordon calls the "minimize danger, maximize reward" principle. Uncertainty not only causes stress but also consumes attention, leaving fewer mental resources for creative thinking and strategic vision. This mental hijacking creates executive behaviours that worsen organizational instability. Psychologist Barry Staw and colleagues described the tendency for executive to 'behave rigidly in threatening situations' as the Threat Rigidity Hypothesis. They explain how executives facing threats often retreat into familiar routines and limit the alternatives they consider, making innovation harder. People tend to centralize authority and increase control over decisions. A study by Huseyin Gulen and Mihai Ion showed that policy uncertainty leads to fewer capital investments, especially in industries where investments aren't easily reversed. They found that doubling policy uncertainty led to an 8.7% drop in amount of average capital investments. These reduced investments ultimately weaken a firm's long-term competitive position, forcing the firm to rely on increasingly declining revenue sources. This starts a destructive cycle: external uncertainty narrows perceived options, leading to short-term fixes, which creates more uncertainty, further shrinks strategic thinking, and results in reactive leadership. There's an analogy to driving that offers a useful analogy. Most drivers instinctively narrow their field of vision as their vehicles accelerate, focusing increasingly on the immediate road ahead. Yet, professional race car drivers do the opposite. At speeds over 200 mph, Formula 1 drivers deliberately look further down the track—what racing coaches call "visual anticipation." Experienced drivers extend their gaze and use peripheral vision to better manage curves. Business leaders can adopt this same principle. Research by strategic management scholars Nadkarni and Chen showed that firms with CEOs who maintain longer-term horizons introduce new products faster in turbulent environments than those with short-term focused CEOs. Executives who continue to look long term maintain their strategic advantage during turbulent times. Long-term thinking doesn't just prevent anxiety-driven mistakes—it actively creates organizational stability during external chaos. Nadella exemplifies this strategy in his leadership of Microsoft. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the OpenAI DevDay event on ... More November 06, 2023. (Photo by) When Nadella took control in 2014, Microsoft's future looked precarious. The company had missed the mobile revolution, faced declining Windows revenue, and watched cloud-based competitors erode its strengths. Rather than focusing exclusively on immediate threats, Nadella anchored Microsoft's strategy in a purpose beyond quarterly earnings: "to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more." This broad vision enabled seemingly risky moves. Nadella led Microsoft into the open-source community it had once opposed, joining the Linux Foundation and later acquiring GitHub for $7.5 billion in 2018. These moves signalled Microsoft's shift toward collaboration and adaptability. More importantly, Nadella prioritized strategic investments in artificial intelligence, starting a partnership with OpenAI with a $1 billion investment in 2019, later expanded to a reported $13 billion arrangement. This long-term bet positioned Microsoft as an AI leader years before competitors fully recognized the technology's potential. Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson notes that "Satya Nadella at Microsoft talks about the power of a growth mindset – that constant drive to learn, improve, and push boundaries." He combines clear long-term vision with the strength to withstand short-term pressures. The results are impressive: Microsoft's market value grew from approximately $300 billion when Nadella became CEO to over $3 trillion by early 2024—a tenfold increase during one of technology's most disruptive decades. Maintaining strategic vision during chaos requires more than inspirational leadership—it needs concrete practices that extend organizational time horizons. Research on high-performing organizations reveals three essential elements: Purpose-driven organizations show remarkable resilience during volatile periods. In an article I wrote with colleagues, Ju Young Lee and Alice Mascena, we argued that a firm's purpose helps combat short-term thinking. An organization's purpose helps executives gain new insights, see issues holistically, maintain focus, and bring unity and direction. "Our historical focus on 'me' and 'right now' seems increasingly problematic in light of the large-scale challenges facing society," argues Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School professor and author of Reimagining Capitalism. A study by Gartenberg, Prat, and Serafeim found that companies with a high purpose and clarity experienced both higher future accounting returns and stock market performance compared to industry peers. Effective executives articulate purpose in specific, actionable terms. Consider how PayPal CEO Dan Schulman redefined his company's purpose as "democratizing financial services" rather than merely processing payments. This broader vision guided strategic priorities during financial market volatility, directing resources toward underserved populations and emerging payment technologies aligned with the company's core purpose. Purpose alone cannot secure an organization's future. Investments in both physical and digital infrastructure provide the foundation for long-term strategy. A Harvard Business Review study of 4,700 public companies across three recessions (1980, 1990, and 2000) showed that the most successful companies sought operational efficiencies while also spending on marketing, R&D, and new assets. Microsoft exemplifies this approach through continuous investment in global data centers, quantum computing research, and advanced cloud architecture—even when Wall Street analysts pressured for higher short-term returns. These investments ensured Microsoft could quickly scale services and deploy new technologies when opportunities emerged, rather than scrambling to build capabilities reactively. Most critically, organizations that thrive amid chaos prioritize developing their people for future challenges rather than merely optimizing current performance. During the 2008 financial crisis, while many companies implemented widespread layoffs, Costco invested further in employee training and maintained high wages. This strategic decision paid off dramatically; Costco not only saw increased employee loyalty and productivity but also outperformed its peers significantly in the years following the downturn. Investing in employees builds more resilient organizations by developing skills that create a reservoir of adaptive capacity that becomes invaluable when unforeseen challenges emerge. In an era defined by relentless uncertainty, the path to organizational stability lies in embracing a paradox: looking further ahead precisely when immediate threats demand attention. By anchoring in purpose, investing in future-ready infrastructure, and developing tomorrow's capabilities today, executives can create islands of stability amid seas of chaos. As Microsoft's transformation under Nadella demonstrates, organizations that extend their strategic vision during turbulence don't merely survive—they emerge stronger, more adaptable, and better positioned to shape the future. They are buffered by the turbulence, rather than being buffeted by it. The most effective executives understand that in times of greatest uncertainty, the clearest path forward requires lifting your gaze from the immediate storm to the distant horizon—and steering confidently toward it.
