Cities have always been built to last. The question now is whether they are built to change, and whether the difference matters when disruption arrives.

Resilience Reflections is a Flavors of Ambition mini-series from BCG that examines how recent disruptions are reshaping how leaders think about strategy, infrastructure, and long-term resilience. In this episode, the series turns its lens on cities, and on what separates the places that hold under pressure from those that reveal,, that their foundations were designed for a more stable world.

BCG Senior Partners Vladislav Boutenko and Suresh Subudhi are co-authors of two of BCG's most recent publications on urban competitiveness, and between them have advised more than fifty governments, city leaders, and boards across seventeen countries on what it takes to build cities that genuinely work for the people who live in them.

The conversation begins with a question that sounds simple but isn't: what does resilience actually mean for a city, and does the way we currently measure urban success tell us anything useful about how cities endure when conditions change?

Vlad and Suresh explore what the reports Built to Change and the Intelligent Cities Index reveal about speed of change and why its relationship to resident advocacy challenges some long-held assumptions about what makes cities competitive. They examine what the research shows about the gap between cities that have the capability to adapt and those actually delivering better outcomes for residents.

The episode then moves into territory the data points toward but doesn't fully resolve: how migration is changing, what a billion people choosing where to live over the next decade means for cities in this region, and how leaders should be thinking about talent, livability, and the economics of urban life in that context.

If you lead a city, work with one, or simply choose to live in one, this conversation will change how you think about what cities are for and what it will take to make them work in the decades ahead.

Links:

Vladislav Boutenko on LinkedIn

Suresh Subudhi on LinkedIn

Built to Change: How Cities Compete for the Future

Intelligent Cities Index 2026

BCG Middle East

BCG Middle East | Podcasts

Email Flavors of Ambition: flavorsofambition@bcg.com

The Middle East has lived through disruption. What leaders do with what that disruption revealed is the question that matters now.

Resilience Reflections is a Flavors of Ambition mini-series from BCG that explores how recent disruptions are reshaping business strategy, supply chains, and operational resilience. Through conversations with BCG experts, the series examines practical lessons for leaders navigating an increasingly complex operating environment.

In this episode, BCG Managing Director and Senior Partner Jad Bitar draws on more than thirty years of experience advising leaders through crisis, from the 2008 financial crisis and COVID to the recent disruptions across the region, to examine the gap at the centre of every leadership failure: the distance between how organisations are designed to perform and how they actually perform under real pressure.

The episode moves through four interconnected challenges that every leader operating in this environment needs to confront. The first two examine the organisational foundations: why compound crises expose the limits of conventional crisis planning, and why the goal of strategy is no longer to predict the future but to build the capability to respond to whatever it brings. The second two examine the human cost: how the loyalty equation with people has fundamentally changed and what leaders must do to earn, not assume, commitment, and what AI transformation is doing to the gap between what leaders are saying publicly and what their people are experiencing privately.

The episode concludes with an honest examination of what all of this costs at a human level, why resilience is an organisational responsibility rather than a personal virtue, and what clear-eyed leadership through sustained uncertainty actually looks like.

For leaders who want to understand not just how to manage disruption but how to build organisations where the gap is not so wide in the first place, this episode is the guide.

Links:

Jad Bitar on LinkedIn

BCG Middle East

BCG Middle East | Podcasts

The BCG CEO Insomnia Index: Understanding CEO Pressure

Email Flavors of Ambition: flavorsofambition@bcg.com

Recent disruptions have highlighted vulnerabilities across global trade and supply chains, prompting business leaders to reassess the resilience of the systems that support their organizations.

Resilience Reflections is a Flavors of Ambition mini-series from BCG that explores how recent disruptions are reshaping business strategy, supply chains, and operational resilience. Through conversations with BCG experts, the series examines practical lessons for leaders navigating an increasingly complex operating environment.

In this first episode, BCG Managing Director and Senior Partner Rami Rafih introduces the themes that will shape the series. Drawing on his experience advising organizations on business strategy in a changing geopolitical landscape, Rami discusses how recent disruptions have affected global trade infrastructure and what these developments can mean for businesses and economies.

The conversation explores which sectors have experienced the greatest disruption, how supply chain interdependencies can amplify operational impacts, and why recovery timelines differ significantly across industries. Rami also examines the structural changes already influencing global trade and supply chain strategy, regardless of when conditions stabilize.

The episode concludes with perspectives on the factors shaping resilience today, the outlook for recovery across key sectors, and practical considerations for business leaders seeking to strengthen resilience and prepare for future disruption.

For leaders looking to better understand how global developments are influencing regional transformation—and what it can take to build more resilient operations—this episode provides the starting point for the series.

Links:

Rami Rafih on LinkedIn

BCG Middle East

BCG Middle East | Podcasts

How Could the Strait of Hormuz Chokepoint Impact Future Business Dynamics?

The Hormuz Strait: Which Sectors and Regions Are Impacted Most?

When the Strait Closes, the Transition Opens: How the Middle East Conflict Could Reshape Maritime Fuel Strategy

Email Flavors of Ambition: flavorsofambition@bcg.com