THE 2026 C-SUITE STUDY
THE 2026 C-SUITE STUDY
Planning for the Unexpected
A letter from our CEO
The pace of change confronting businesses continues to accelerate. Technology is advancing rapidly, customer expectations are shifting, investors remain disciplined, and disruption has become a persistent part of the business environment. For leaders, the challenge isn’t to simply react to change. We must build organizations capable of moving forward while conditions continue to evolve.
Experience matters in that environment, but experience can also create a false sense of preparedness. What worked through the last period of disruption may not be enough for the next. Readiness requires more than confidence in an organization’s ability to respond. It requires clear priorities, strong alignment across leadership, and the ability to make informed decisions as circumstances shift.
That distinction is at the center of Planning for the Unexpected: The C-Suite Study. The research reveals organizations that are highly confident in their ability to withstand disruption, but considerably less consistent in taking the steps required to prepare for it. It also highlights important differences in how CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and other executives perceive the risks facing their businesses.
Those gaps have real implications. Effective preparation depends on leaders having a shared understanding of what creates value, what could put that value at risk, and which investments will strengthen the organization for a variety of outcomes. Finance, technology, and operations cannot develop independent strategies with siloed conversations. The decisions made across each are increasingly interconnected.
In the next era of business, uncertainty will remain a constant. The opportunity is to build organizations that are prepared to make deliberate decisions through it. The findings in this report provide a valuable perspective on where organizations stand today, where leadership teams may be less aligned than they realize, and what stronger preparation can look like as the pace of change continues to accelerate.
Brian Waller, CEO, Highspring
Nearly every company faced a disruption last year. For some, it was a system that couldn’t scale, an unexpected global event, a new tariff that created economic uncertainty, or a new competitor. For others, it was a critical role that was a challenge to fill, impacting a major initiative.
Almost every leader believes their company could handle another major disruption today. Yet fewer than half say their plans account for it. That 45-point gap between confidence and preparation raises a question for every leadership team: what backs that confidence?
The gap
45 points
between the share of leaders confident they could handle a major disruption (92%) and the share whose planning accounts for the unexpected (47%).
Their words
Asked for one word to describe the business environment right now, leaders most often said:
→ Competitive
→ Dynamic
→ Volatile
→ Challenging
→ Uncertain
What this means for you
Disruption is becoming the norm, and leaders still have to move critical objectives forward, often doing more with less. Even as the market shifts constantly, the core work still needs to get done: modernizing technology, improving data and AI capabilities, transforming finance, reducing cost, preparing for transactions, and building the teams required to execute.
The findings in this report show why that work gets harder when confidence outpaces planning, pulling focus away from what moves the needle. Leaders may believe their business can handle anything, but that readiness rests on the people, technology, systems, and processes that hold together when conditions change. This C-suite report highlights why planning matters, so organizations can keep their highest priority objectives moving through disruption.
Highspring’s view
The report
While this report includes themes around risk aversion, backup systems, and continuity planning, the findings go deeper than that. Every company in this study is trying to accomplish a goal in a landscape that’s constantly changing, whether that’s modernizing a platform, operationalizing AI usage, transforming their finance function, or building a high-performing team. Planning for the unexpected is what lets companies keep moving on critical objectives when markets get unpredictable. It doesn’t limit growth; it helps it scale.
Decide what prepared means for the whole company.
Every function rated itself ready, however, when zoomed out, the scores exposed a weakness. If you ask the CEO, CFO, and CIO the same two questions, at times, the answers will differ significantly.
Put the unexpected in the next plan.
Every company plans, but they often stop short of the “what if?” Take the downside scenarios finance already runs and ask each function what would change if one occurred: which commitments would be at risk, what decisions would need to be made, and which other teams would be affected? Then agree on the triggers, owners, and first actions before a disruption forces those decisions.
Build the plan, the people, and the systems together.
Planning for disruption allows companies to continue innovating when conditions change. But your impact depends on whether priorities, people, and systems can continue to move together. Whether you’re modernizing your systems, completing a financial transformation, or navigating a transaction, your next plan should define who owns what when disruption hits, so the business can respond as one.
Confidence isn’t a plan. Building for what’s next is.
key insights
Navigating this report
Three seats. One picture.
Each seat is right about its perspective. The gap is between them.
By keeping these perspectives fragmented, readiness becomes an obstacle. But bring the three views together, the gap closes and plans for the unexpected begin to be built. The companies that move through the next disruption best will be the ones who turn those perspectives into shared objectives, see the opportunity within the challenge, and plan for success.