For decades, globalization shaped the technology function around efficiency, scale, and cost and drove global architectures, talent models, and vendor ecosystems. Today, those foundations are under increasing strain.
“Geopolitical dynamics have changed significantly over the last two to three years,” says Pankaj Sachdeva, a senior partner at McKinsey. “If you combine geopolitical risk, increasing cyber risk, and ongoing east–west decoupling in supply chains, you create a very dynamic and fluid environment where security risks are harder to predict and manage—materially changing the risk landscape for enterprises.”
Reflecting this shift, McKinsey’s Geopolitics Practice has identified technology, security, and IP as one of the ten key geopolitical drivers that business and IT leaders should systematically and continually assess as they seek to safeguard operations and capture new opportunities.
Most IT operating models and policies were not designed for this level of volatility, leaving many organizations exposed to sudden disruptions. As a result, technology is reshaping how companies think about geopolitical risk, with growing tech challenges intensifying it and further intertwining technology with corporate strategy. Here’s what leaders need to know to build technology resilience in an increasingly uncertain world.
Mapping exposure in a fragmented world
A persistent blind spot for technology leaders is limited visibility into where critical technology assets and data, and the people who manage them, are exposed in an increasingly fragmented geopolitical environment. Static system inventories no longer capture how technology, talent, and vendors intersect across jurisdictions shaped by regulatory divergence, trade constraints, and political risk.
“Technology supply chains have become so complex that organizations are now exposed to significant nth-party risk,” says Jan Shelly Brown, a McKinsey partner. “Most companies understand their direct vendors, but they lack visibility into the vendor networks behind them, where vulnerabilities can quickly cascade into real outages.”
Geopolitical disruption amplifies these risks. Regulatory shifts, regional instability, or trade restrictions in a single geography can surface hidden dependencies, such as specialized expertise or operational control concentrated in one country, that can stall revenue even when systems appear technically resilient.
Reducing this exposure requires greater transparency. Organizations can map assets, data flows, vendors, and talent together, by both geography and value stream, to identify where geopolitical concentration creates risk and where single points of failure sit.
Geopolitics
Proactively navigating the implications of geopolitical uncertainty
Rebalancing global operating models for resilience
In today’s geopolitical environment, resilience requires greater flexibility across where systems run, where data resides, and how talent and partners are deployed, so organizations can adapt quickly as geopolitical and regulatory conditions evolve.
“As we look at the overall geopolitical dynamics, many of the assumptions that drove centralization are being fundamentally challenged,” says Jan Shelly. “Nation-states are starting to view data, and now even compute, as strategic infrastructure, and they’re restricting cross-border flows as a result.”
Rather than localizing, organizations can redesign technology foundations to absorb change and adapt more quickly. Modular, platform-based architectures, built around standardized cores with clear separation rules, can allow regional variation where required without fragmenting the entire estate. These design choices extend to vendor strategies as well, where geopolitical footprint and resilience now factor alongside cost and capability.
Planning for disruption without overcorrecting
Too many organizations confront geopolitical risk only once a crisis is already unfolding. At that point, options are limited and responses are costly. Technology, by nature, cannot be rearchitected overnight.
Yet while looking ahead is critical, preparation doesn’t mean defending against every possible risk. “There are certain trade-offs that need to be made,” says Pankaj. “The key is understanding which threats are most specific to your business and prioritizing the vulnerabilities that matter most. And with a focused, iterative approach, organizations can materially strengthen security and build confidence in months, not years.”
Jan Shelly adds, “It’s not about binary plans. It’s about stress-testing a range of scenarios, including less predictable edge cases, so response time and disruption can be reduced when conditions change.”
This focused approach can help organizations define clear triggers and escalation paths for when crises occur, allowing leaders to act early and secure alternative data locations, vendor agreements, or talent arrangements.
Redefining CIO leadership for uncertain times
“Historically, the CIO was often seen as back office, with geopolitical and business risk considered separately from technology,” says Jan Shelly. “Today, CIOs need to be at the table, advising the C-suite and the board on how geopolitical risk translates into technology risk.”
That shift marks a pivotal moment for the role. CIOs can no longer focus solely on optimizing performance and efficiency, as they are increasingly responsible for ensuring continuity in a fragmented and fast-moving environment. Meeting that mandate means translating geopolitical uncertainty into concrete technology decisions early, before disruption forces reactive choices.
The organizations that navigate this transition most effectively will not be those that attempt to predict every geopolitical development, but those that design technology environments resilient enough to absorb shocks, adapt quickly, and operate with confidence amid ongoing uncertainty.
A checklist for CIOs on building technology resilience today:
- Map exposure end to end. Create an integrated view of technology assets, data flows, vendors, and critical talent by geography and value stream to identify geopolitical concentration and hidden single points of failure.
- Redesign for flexibility, not fragmentation. Shift toward modular, platform-based architectures that allow regional variation where required—without duplicating or splintering the core technology estate.
- Stress-test, but don’t overbuild. Prioritize the geopolitical risks most material to the business, define clear triggers and escalation paths, and run targeted scenario tests to reduce response time when disruption occurs.
- Elevate the CIO role in risk discussions. Ensure technology risk is embedded in enterprise risk conversations, with CIOs actively advising the C-suite and board on how geopolitical shifts translate into technology decisions.
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