From Blind Spots to Insights: Enhancing Geopolitical Radar to Guide Global Business

The report examines the capabilities of 25 multinational companies in tracking geopolitical factors, distinguishing between 'geopolitical radar' (detecting events) and 'geopolitical sonar' (understanding underlying drivers). It finds that corporate tracking is often reactive and backward-looking, prioritizing urgent, mandatory state actions while overlooking long-term trends. The authors argue that shifting to a proactive posture and investing in internal capabilities can yield commercial payoffs, such as supplier diversification and the discovery of underserved markets.

• Corporate executives primarily focus on security-related geopolitical factors, with US-China relations being the most prominent concern. The report defines a relevant geopolitical factor as an "act, event, driver or trend where there are both security and cross-border dimensions that are likely to have material consequences on some aspect of commercial performance."
• Current corporate 'geopolitical radar' is largely reactive and experience-driven, tending to prioritize state actions that are mandatory, require immediate action, and are clearly impactful. This approach creates blind spots for non-urgent but material factors, such as industrial policy subsidies like those in the US Inflation Reduction Act.
• The report distinguishes between 'geopolitical radar', which detects visible events and imminent threats, and 'geopolitical sonar', which is needed to identify the root causes and drivers of geopolitical dynamics. A 'sonar' approach allows for a more agile response and better-grounded assumptions about the future commercial landscape.
• Many companies suffer from 'key person risk' and a lack of institutional memory because they have not invested in information systems to inventory and assess geopolitical factors, relying instead on specific individuals to contextualize developments.
• Strengthening geopolitical capabilities can provide six specific commercial payoffs: diversifying suppliers in friendly or non-aligned locations; replacing sales lost to trade wars; discovering underserved markets; leveraging localization strategies; capturing business from sanctioned rivals; and creating substitutes for sanctioned technologies; and collaborating more closely with governments on industrial policy.

APA

World Economic Forum (2025). From Blind Spots to Insights: Enhancing Geopolitical Radar to Guide Global Business. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_From_Blind_Spots_to_Insights_2025.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. From Blind Spots to Insights: Enhancing Geopolitical Radar to Guide Global Business. 2025. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_From_Blind_Spots_to_Insights_2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=From Blind Spots to Insights: Enhancing Geopolitical Radar to Guide Global Business |date=January 2025 |url=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_From_Blind_Spots_to_Insights_2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2025from, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{From Blind Spots to Insights: Enhancing Geopolitical Radar to Guide Global Business}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_From_Blind_Spots_to_Insights_2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }