How To Lead With Clarity Amid Chaos and Uncertainty

Geopolitical instability, market uncertainty, inflation, and supply-chain disruption are facts of daily life for business leaders today. Those challenging issues raise a common question:

How do leaders build stability and long-term success amid all the chaos?

I’ve lived that challenge. In my journey from a young girl navigating the adversity and upheaval of post-Soviet Georgia to becoming a CFO during that difficult transition, I found that these three key approaches are essential to surviving and thriving in a volatile business climate.

An all-in leadership agreement on principles and foundation 

Leadership amid chaos requires beginning with truth, character, and structure. When I joined CBS Group as CFO in 2013 during Georgia’s other instability, it was imperative to establish order, integrity, and transparency before pursuing progress.

Back then, I observed a disorganized business world plagued by corruption. The companies in our holdings were much like the overall business environment in Georgia at the time. There was an ocean between them and the rest of the developed world in terms of compliance, good governance, or adherence to any kind of standard. Some regulations had been put in place nationally, and some people were eager to embrace them. But for every company that welcomed the changes necessary to join the global economy, there were many more that preferred doing things the old way.

The general mindset was, why should they report their earnings and pay taxes to the government when they could make more money off the books, on the black market, through secret deals or bribery, or from just plain stealing?

CBS Group was one of the companies that wanted to make changes. Four of us — our shareholder, my CEO, our office manager, and I — were all on the same mission: to place our company at the forefront of this new, transparent way of doing business in Georgia. If we were going to grow our assets, acquire additional holdings, and develop into the kind of company we dreamed we could create, we needed to start with a solid commitment among the leadership group to form a strong foundation.

That meant everybody being in agreement on the principles that construct the foundation.

Dig deep for the hard truths and find solutions 

A true leader in crisis faces the facts, even when they’re ugly, because avoiding them destroys the foundation. My next step at CBS Group was to confront uncomfortable realities.

I basically went in with a brush and broom, ready to clean things up, insisting that integrity and transparency were non-negotiable. Things were a mess. Our shareholder wasn’t even sure of exactly what he had in terms of assets. He had no idea what the companies in his holdings were worth or what his liabilities were. The only way to know was to clean up and structure all the assets to see a clear picture of what was there. Once we had that, we could decide what to do with each asset according to our strategies for development and risk diversification.

But before any of that could happen, I needed to know everything that was going on in these companies. I had to visit each individual business and review their operations and books to get a clear picture of what they were doing — right and wrong, legal and illegal — so I could build on their strengths and address any problems.

But not everyone involved was on board with this plan. Middle and top managers at some companies went to great lengths to stop me from learning what they were up to. They put obstacles in my way, refused to share information I requested, and, more importantly, hid where the company’s money was coming from and where it was going. Since I needed this information to do my job properly, I became a financial detective, digging into the companies’ records on my own to see what was working properly and what was not.

Ultimately, the merger I worked on went through. We wanted to get involved in more big, transformative projects that would build Georgia’s infrastructure and economy. However, to build these new things or clean up and get the most out of the assets we owned, there was a constant need for cash. I did a lot of analysis, deciding which companies to divest, looking for the assets that could be capitalized the most, and the ones that might not be as profitable in our portfolio in the future. We were able to divest from the companies that were draining money out of the company, and I was able to build up the cash cows, invest the money they generated, and build the portfolio we have now.

The change we’re helping create in Georgia isn’t just about building a modern, functional infrastructure; it’s about doing business in a new way that’s more aligned with Europe and the West.

Transform crisis into opportunity  

The most positive way for a leader to view a crisis is as an opportunity.

The COVID-19 lockdown transformed me from a financial manager to a crisis manager. It happened because I was able to pivot and get the most out of the situation that we as a company were in. Since everything was devalued during this period, it was a good time to make acquisitions, knowing we would be in an even stronger position when the economy rebounded.

Still, the pandemic was a huge crisis across the globe, and we suffered economically like everyone else. But this occurrence gave CBS Group another opportunity to show our commitment to our country. The economic turmoil tested not only our professional resilience but also the moral and ethical compass of our leadership. Our founder insisted that, no matter how hard it was on our margins, we would keep all the employees across all our holdings, whether they were coming to work or not. We continued paying the salaries of everyone who was employed before the lockdown, which not only kept them fed and housed, but also contributed to the overall stability of Georgia’s economy.

We demonstrated social responsibility toward our country. That’s how I see and how I respect the company I’m working for. I’m proud to have come through the pandemic without even laying off one person, unlike so many other companies in Georgia and around the world.

A vision realized, but challenges never cease  

When I became CFO at CBS Group, daunting as the challenges were, I had a sense that this idea for a different kind of holding company that would help develop the modern systems our struggling country needed could be transformational. And it has been. Many leaders think that way and their companies have grown because of their vision.

But at the same time, they must know that challenges will never end. And they must be ready to face them. My country, Georgia, is dealing with one now. After we came through the COVID-19 pandemic remarkably well — an economy growing by double digits, relationships between our neighbors stabilized, on track for admission to the European Union — Russia invaded Ukraine and threw our region back into turmoil. In Georgia, instability is our stability. Now everyone is wondering what will happen next.

The same is often true for many businesses worldwide: instability and uncertainty can be frequent and formidable adversaries. Some factors may be out of their control. But the true measure of leadership is not always how one performs during prosperity, but how one upholds principles under pressure. The way forward for leaders toward company stability in times of chaos and uncertainty is to stand firmly on a strong foundation, confront the hard truths, and turn crisis into opportunity.

Written by Tamar Gakharia.