Most companies don’t just fail because of a single disruption. They fail because their business model was never built to handle more than one disruption.
In 2026, that reality is clearer than ever. Whether it’s generative AI redefining value chains, climate-related supply shocks, or consumer behavior shifting in a matter of weeks as opposed to several years. The ability to adapt is no longer a competitive edge. It’s a necessary survival skill.
But there’s something even more powerful than adaptability. It’s anticipation.
True resilience isn’t reactive. It’s proactive. It’s about building systems and strategies that expect change, embrace opportunity, and pivot with purpose.
This is where my Anticipatory Organization® Model offers a blueprint not just to survive disruption, but to use disruption as a catalyst for innovation and growth.
Are Traditional Business Models Too Rigid?
The short answer is “yes.”
Conventional models are built around efficiency, predictability, and linear growth. Those models worked well in the 20th century, but in today’s world of exponential technology and rapid change, that rigidity becomes a liability.
The signs are everywhere. Here are some examples:
Retailers with fixed brick-and-mortar investments unable to compete with digital-first brands.
Manufacturers hit by fragile supply chains and lacking real-time visibility.
Financial institutions struggling to integrate AI without eroding trust or transparency.
These aren’t tech problems. They’re structural weaknesses in business models.
What Makes a Business Model Resilient in 2026?
A resilient business model is more than durable, it is designed to grow stronger under stress. Think of it as being anti-fragile. This concept is borrowed from systems theory, where exposure to volatility actually enhances performance.
Resilient models share several key traits:
Built-in scenario planning: Considers multiple futures instead of assuming a straight line forward which helps to facilitate a culture of pre-solving disruptions.
Agile infrastructure: Leverages the cloud, modular platforms, and AI to scale up or down as needed.
Diversified value creation: Aims to not be reliant on a single product, channel, or customer type and instead prioritizes diversification.
Culture of anticipation: Designed to make sure your employees are adequately trained to see opportunity in change instead of it being a threat.
Regular stress testing: Evaluates your business functions and assumptions under future-driven scenarios to test for fractures.
These are ideas already in motion across multiple industries.
What Are Some Real-World Applications of Anticipatory Resilience?
Let’s look at how some industries are building more resilient models today by applying Anticipatory principles.
1. Agriculture: Pre-Solving Future Food Crises
AgTech companies like Corteva and Indigo Ag are embedding predictive analytics into soil and crop models, allowing farmers to act before weather disruptions or supply shortages occur.
By using scenario planning tied to climate models, these companies can pivot planting strategies months in advance. This is how they pre-solve problems brought about by disruptions.
2. Healthcare: From Reactive to Proactive Care
Healthcare systems like Mayo Clinic are using digital twins and AI diagnostics to forecast health outcomes. This allows them to move from treatment to prevention. By doing so, they’re building models that are not only cost-efficient but far more adaptive to changing patient needs.
This approach makes them less vulnerable to sudden shifts in regulation or resource availability, strengthening business disruption resilience.
3. Logistics: Anti-Fragile by Design
Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, has recently implemented AI-driven logistics systems that adjust global shipping routes in real time based on predictive data.
Their use of stress test models allows them to identify failure points in their global network before those points break. In turn, they’ve built a system that learns and adapts under pressure.
How Can You Make Your Business Model Resilient (Regardless of Size)?
You don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to future-proof your business. You just need to think differently.
Start with these core strategies:
Identify Hard Trends: Pinpoint the certainties in your industry, whether that be technologies, regulations, or demographic shifts that will happen, and build around them.
Develop a Pivot Portfolio: What if your primary revenue stream disappears next year? Do you have a backup product, service, or distribution method ready to activate? It is important that you do.
Conduct Stress Tests Quarterly: Simulate what happens if a supply line breaks, a key software tool goes down, or a major client leaves. What breaks first? That’s where to reinforce.
Build Soft Trend Playbooks: These are potential changes that might happen. Consumer preferences, pricing models, partnership structures are all examples of Soft Trends. Have an influence plan and not just a response plan.
Embed Anticipatory Thinking Into Culture: Train teams to look ahead, question assumptions, and bring solutions to the table as opposed to focusing solely on problems.
In implementing these strategies, you get a team and structure that doesn’t panic under change and instead, one that pivots accordingly.
The Myth of the Perfect Plan
Too many leaders are still trying to find a “bulletproof” strategy to implement.
The truth is the most successful companies in 2026 aren’t going to be those that bet big on one outcome. They’re the ones with adaptable frameworks built on certainty and optionality.
Rigid planning assumes you can predict the path. Anticipatory planning accepts that while the path may change, the destination, growth, impact, and value all remain the same.
As I often say: disruption is only a threat if you didn’t see it coming.
How Do You Build Your Advantage?
Disruption isn’t going away. If anything, it’s accelerating. But being disruption-proof doesn’t mean dodging every challenge. That’s impossible. It means having the mindset, model, and methods to turn each one into an advantage.
You already have tools like AI, digital platforms, and real-time analytics at your disposal. Remember thought that tools are only as good as the strategy behind them.
When you use anticipation as your foundation, resilience becomes more than survival and develops into a strategy for growth.
Don’t wait for change to force your hand. Design your business to lead through it.
Want to make disruption a choice instead of a surprise?Bring me in to help your team identify Hard Trends, build resilience, and create a practical action plan.
Start here: https://www.burrus.com/
