11/17/2025

Building Stakeholder Trust in Uncertain Times

Cost cutting and cash hoarding can alienate stakeholder attitudes

These are trying times for corporations. The marketplace is rife with unpredictability, especially when it comes to economic and trade policy. The 2025 World Economic Forum's Chief Economists Outlook report concluded that "uncertainty has become a defining feature of the global economic landscape," with 82 percent of chief economists gauging uncertainty as "very high."

This year, the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, which tracks data from around the world, spiked to its highest level in three decades.

When businesses are navigating this level of uncertainty, they tend to veer into self-protection mode and focus on strategies like cost-cutting and hoarding cash. But this inward focus can alienate your business from your stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and communities—at a time you need them the most. If trust is to be built rather than lost during these challenging times, leaders’ attention must expand beyond their company's uncertainty to understanding and responding to their stakeholders' uncertainty.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.