When everything shakes, brave organizations find new ways to move forward
How crises can become strategic opportunities to innovate, reinvent, and lead change in challenging contexts. An invitation to see chaos as a lever for growth.
Crisis and Context: The Two Sides of Change
Have you ever heard of an organization that admits to being in crisis while also claiming that the context in which it operates is favorable for growth? At first glance, it seems contradictory. However, a deeper analysis reveals that these situations can coexist—and in fact, complement one another.
Crises do not always signify negative change. Rather, they represent a disruption that demands an active and transformative response. As Gertrude Stein once said, "a crisis is always the same." What changes is not the nature of the crisis itself, but how its factors align—and how we respond as individuals, collectives, and organizations. It is in that response where the true nature of a crisis is defined: it can be a downfall or a chance for reinvention.
Today, industries face a global environment and local conditions in which the rules of the game are being challenged and rewritten. This scenario is not optional; organizations must innovate to adapt. Reinvention is no longer a luxury—it's a necessity. Disruption, far from being an anomaly, has become the norm. And those who fail to adjust their strategies will inevitably fall behind.
Within this framework, crisis stops being a problem and becomes a driver of change. The redefinition of the rules opens up a wide array of possibilities to explore new business models, new ways of working, and ultimately, new ways of creating value.
A clear example of this dynamic can be found in the healthcare sector, which is undergoing a global crisis. In every country, regardless of its level of development, healthcare systems are facing structural challenges: an aging population, rising costs, more complex social demands, and, in some cases, a lack of innovation. And yet, this crisis is also accelerating significant advances. Many of them—such as the adoption of telemedicine, the use of artificial intelligence in diagnostics, and the design of healthcare systems that are more preventive than reactive—are just some of the instrumental responses of a system searching for a new way to operate.
This case illustrates that a crisis is not the end, but a turning point. In the right context, it can be the necessary push to build something better. And herein lies the paradox: the very same factors that generate uncertainty can also enable growth.
The great challenge for organizations is learning to navigate this apparent contradiction. Recognizing crisis not as a sign of weakness, but as an invitation to change. And, at the same time, reading the context strategically to identify where the opportunities for evolution lie.
The key, then, lies in the ability to turn a “clean slate” into a story of progress. This implies more than just technological innovation—it requires a cultural shift within organizations. Embracing agility, encouraging collaboration, and taking calculated risks become the essential pillars to thrive in times of uncertainty, while building new rules of the game for the sector.
Finally, it's important to remember that crises are not eternal, but their impact can be. That’s why what truly defines organizations is not whether they go through a crisis, but how they respond to it. Those who manage to turn disruption into opportunity will be better positioned not just to survive—but to thrive—in a constantly changing world. And what better way to do so than by becoming protagonists in the creation of the new rules of the game? The first to innovate and gain customer acceptance will be the one who succeeds in establishing the new market standards.
By Alberto Bethke, Founder at Olivia.
