When I sat down to write this post, I hesitated. Another CEO talking about "uncertain times" feels trite at this point. But here we are, navigating what might be the most turbulent business landscape of my 20-year career, and I've found conversations with fellow leaders to be my lifeline. So I'll share what's resonated with me and is working for us, in hopes it might help you too.

We're All Feeling It

Recent events underscore the volatility businesses face. Early 2025 saw global markets rattled as tariffs imposed by the Trump administration triggered sharp retaliations and economic turmoil. The VIX volatility index soared to 134%, and major market indices like the NASDAQ and S&P 500 experienced double-digit declines. Tariffs surged to historically high levels, reaching 145% in some categories, prompting retaliatory tariffs and trade barriers from China and other global players.

Simultaneously, AI disruption is transforming industries faster than most can comprehend. Foundational assumptions underpinning business, commerce, talent and society are constantly being challenged, forcing leaders to reconsider traditional business models and assumptions.

This is the essence of VUCA – Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. It's not just a business school acronym anymore; it's our daily reality.

What Are We Doing About It

1. Playing Defense and Offense Simultaneously

The natural inclination during uncertainty is to pull back, cut costs, and wait it out. I've been there. And for some companies, that is the only answer to survive. But if you have the flexibility, our job as leaders is to balance short term needs with long term strategy.

We've completely reimagined our planning process. Annual plans? Those are artifacts from a more stable era. We now operate with rolling monthly scenarios, giving us the agility to pivot as conditions change. Our finance and analytics teams have done an incredible job in helping us have that visibility which we share with our employees during our respective All Hands meetings.

Beyond restructuring our planning cycles, we've implemented several practices that are proving invaluable:

• Daily monitoring of spend patterns to detect emerging trends early. Our analytics teams flag unusual fluctuations across customer segments.

• Regular customer check-ins that go beyond the standard account reviews. We've instituted brief, candid conversations focused solely on understanding how customers are adjusting to economic pressures. These aren't sales calls; they're listening sessions that have yielded insights we'd never get from data alone. I am also personally having similar conversations with our customers during these times.

• Exploring less exposed and new verticals that may benefit from this disruption. While retail, auto and manufacturing verticals are more impacted, we are finding unexpected growth opportunities in healthcare, education, and certain financial services niches.

• Creating new ways to support customers as they navigate through this time. We're building content and playbooks for our customers on how to navigate through these times and exploring ways we can connect customers to meet their peers facing similar challenges. Additionally, we are looking into pricing flexibility for customers impacted by Tariffs.  These aren't just goodwill gestures – they're strengthening relationships that will outlast the current volatility.

As leaders, we carry a dual responsibility that feels particularly heavy right now: addressing immediate challenges while building for the long term. This tension is especially acute in the age of AI. Let me be blunt: AI has fundamentally changed the game when it comes to product development cycles.

What we've discovered is that AI doesn't just enable faster development—it’s changing the pace of innovation. Companies that previously set and forget their product-market fit may now need to examine it every 9–12 months. The old model of yearly roadmaps and long product cycles is now a liability.

After some painful lessons, we've completely reimagined our approach. We moved to an 8-week product cadence, treating our roadmap as a guidance with flexibility to evolve with new information.  Each has clear success metrics, a dedicated cross-functional team, and the authority to make decisions without layers of approval. And in our most recent 8 week long meta sprint, we delivered meaningful value to customers through key product enhancements:

• Connected TV (CTV): Launched high-impact video ads on streaming platforms with precise audience targeting—boosting brand awareness, engagement, and discovery.

• Advanced Targeting Capabilities: Expanded our partnership with Experian and enhanced contextual targeting to offer richer audience segmentation, greater precision, and more control—enabling brands to reach high-intent buyers with relevance and accuracy.

• Triple Whale Integration: Gave customers unified visibility of AdRoll campaign data within TripleWhale dashboards, supporting smarter, data-driven decisions.

These updates significantly enhance reach, relevance, and performance across campaigns.

I believe that strategic agility means actively seeking new growth opportunities during disruptions. Companies can expand market share by leveraging uncertainty, prioritizing growth to secure sustainable profitability even amid challenging economic climates.

2. Doubling Down on What Makes Us Different - Brand and Service

Technology alone isn't enough to differentiate anymore. Every company is a tech company now.

But here's what I've learned painfully: brand matters more than ever in uncertain times.  I've watched as CFOs have eyed brand marketing budgets with that "do we really need this?". We’ve all seen this movie before—in 2020 with COVID, then again with the inflation fears of 2022. Each time, the companies that slashed brand spending were the last to recover when markets stabilized.

Here's what I've learned about brand during turbulence:

Brand is your economic shock absorber. During uncertain times, customers and prospects flock to known brands versus try out new solutions.  As the  age old saying goes, “no one got fired for hiring IBM.”  When you've built genuine connections with customers before they need to make difficult budget decisions, you're not just another line item to cut. Companies with strong brand loyalty grow revenue 2.5 times faster than competitors and deliver 2-5 times greater returns to shareholders.Those aren't vanity metrics, they're survival mechanisms.

Your existing customers are your safest bet. When acquisition costs soar (as they do in every downturn), retention becomes your financial lifeline. And what drives retention? Not just your product, but the ongoing relationship you nurture through consistent brand presence. It is not just about “making your customers successful,” but maybe even more so  “making them feel successful.”  How you treat your customers with every interaction becomes part of your brand; but it becomes even more important in uncertain times.

Instead of cutting our brand investment, our Head of Brand (Courtney Herb) has refocused it. We're not running generic awareness campaigns; we're demonstrating our understanding of customers' current challenges. We're creating content that actually helps them navigate this environment. As Courtney would say, "You don't stop planting seeds just because there's a storm coming. You double down and tend the roots."

Most importantly, we've focused ruthlessly on demonstrating clear, measurable ROI. When a CFO is looking for costs to cut, ambiguous value propositions get eliminated first.

3. Increase Employee Engagement

If there's one thing keeping me up at night, it's how this environment affects our teams. The constant change, the pressure to perform, the uncertainty about the future; it takes a toll.

We've made transparency our north star. We are shifting from presentation to real conversations.  I’ve embodied this by sending bi-weekly email updates to the company in addition to our monthly company All Hands meeting. When we don't know something, we say it. When plans change, we explain why. Trust erodes in the shadows.

And when things are shifting, we engage our employees in being part of finding solutions.  When tariffs hit, we opened a Slack channel to crowdsource ideas from Rollers (our employees) on how to support both our business and our customers. The response was incredible—many of those ideas are now shaping the strategies we’re putting into action.  Your employees are your greatest asset: engage them.

They want to help, and as leaders we need to create space for it.

My leadership team and I have also made ourselves more available than ever – virtual coffee chats, AMAs, and surprise drop-ins to team meetings. Sometimes people just need to see your face and hear your voice to remember there's a human being thinking about their future.

What Keeps Me Going

Some days, the challenges seem overwhelming. But I remind myself that leadership isn't just about navigating calm waters – it's about finding a path through the storm.

I've found that embracing VUCA rather than fighting it has been liberating. Instead of longing for the predictability of the past, we're building systems and cultures designed for constant change.

In my darkest moments, I remember something my first mentor told me: "doing nothing is not an option." It's become my mantra. We will make mistakes. Some bets won't pay off. But standing still guarantees we'll be left behind.

So, to my fellow leaders navigating these same waters: you're not alone. The path forward isn't clear for any of us. But perhaps together, through honest conversations about what's working and what isn't, we can find our way through.

I'd love to hear what's working for you. The comment section is open, or my DMs if you prefer a private conversation. We're all figuring this out together.

Written by a CEO who's still learning, still adapting, and still believes that our best days are ahead of us, despite it all.