Strategic Leadership in a Fragmented World: At the Crossroads of Political Fragmentation, AI, and Sustainability
Dates & Times
Wednesday, October 14, 2026 – 19:00
Thursday, October 15, 2026 – 09:00–22:00
Location
FORUM, Bildungscampus 1, 74076 Heilbronn, Germany
Sponsor
TUM School of Management
Registration Fees
- Non‑Member: $125
- SMS Member: $100
Event Overview
This extension examines how three intertwined transformations are collectively reshaping the landscape for strategic leadership. Deepening political fragmentation, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), and the growing imperative but also increasingly contested nature of sustainability each pose distinct challenges. Yet their interactions amplify complexity in ways that existing strategic frameworks struggle to accommodate. Political fragmentation is reshaping the governance landscape, with increasing political risk and democratic backsliding even in established democracies. Major financial institutions have withdrawn from climate alliances under political pressure, even as the EU expands mandatory sustainability disclosure requirements. The same corporate commitment may be mandated in one jurisdiction and penalized in another. AI is rapidly transforming how organizations operate, yet its growing energy demands raise urgent sustainability questions of its own. The scientific consensus on climate change, meanwhile, points to the need for significant organizational transformation, even as the political legitimacy of sustainability itself is under dispute in some jurisdictions. Critically, these forces do not unfold in isolation. They compound one another, creating novel strategic challenges around climate change, rising inequality, and the governance of transformative technologies. This demands that strategic leaders develop new frameworks that bridge disciplinary and institutional boundaries. This extension brings together scholars working across these domains to develop integrative perspectives that can inform both theory and practice.