Why Geopolitics Belongs At The Center Of Business Education

For many years, business schools worked from the optimistic assumption that the world was becoming steadily more connected and stable. We prepared our students for greater global expansion and efficiency, and more deeply-interconnected markets on the assumption that borders mattered less, that supply chains would become integrated and economic globalisation would continue to thrive. We prepped future leaders for that world, focusing on the skills needed to compete in a landscape which is shaped by innovation and connection.

Power politics has always mattered. Their role, though, was treated more as an external and marginal risk to monitor and manage, rather than a force that could fundamentally reshape strategies.

This assumption no longer holds. Today, geopolitical factors are profoundly reshaping the global business environment and the design of business models. Trade disputes, regional conflicts, technological rivalries and shifting alliances are the defining features of the business environment.Since the backdrop against which organisations operate has changed so profoundly we, as educators, must change with it.

Students graduating from business schools will join companies facing unprecedented levels of complexity. Global markets are fractured; leaders are expected to make tough decisions in a world where business strategy is increasingly dictated by geopolitics. Understanding how markets work and business models perform is no longer enough: new graduates must be able to deftly navigate the intersection of geopolitics and business.

Supply chains offer a perfect case in point. We used to ask: How can we produce at the lowest cost? Today companies ask: How resilient is our business if we were to be exposed to geopolitical disruption? Efficiency alone is no longer a competitive advantage – resilience is just as important.

An increasingly (geo)politicised environment has other obvious ramifications for the people at the heart of these companies. Talent management and resourcing are two widely documented areas in which companies are having to tactfully navigate the seemingly ever-shifting landscape. Immigration policies, demographic changes, and global competition are all having a marked impact on where (and with whom) companies can recruit, grow and invest. These are not niche concerns felt only by multinational organisations or governments. They are everyday issues across industries, from finance, to manufacturing, to healthcare and hospitality.

Today’s business leaders are being asked questions that many of those before them were never trained to answer. This is why geopolitical understanding has become essential for contemporary business leaders. 

Not every student needs to become an international relations expert, but business schools must help their students understand how political decisions affect markets and how global events create risk and opportunity for organisations.

Ultimately, it’s about opening minds and shaping a new way of thinking. 

Business education has always evolved to reflect major changes in the world. As markets became more sophisticated, finance grew into a core discipline. Sustainability and artificial intelligence both went from specialist topics to integral components of the business school curriculum. Geopolitics is now undergoing the same evolution and business schools that treat it as an elective component, rather than a foundational discipline, will be training leaders for a world that no longer exists.

At ESSEC Business School, we believe passionately in the value of an interdisciplinary approach to education. Business problems cannot be understood from a singular lens. Leaders must understand how politics, economics, technology and society all interact, and how one decision from one sector influences outcomes in another. 

It is this thinking that has inspired the launch of the Global Foresight Council by the ESSEC Institute for Geopolitics and Business (the institute itself was created by ESSEC in 2024). I preside over the Council, alongside the directors of the Institute, Aurélien Colson, Cédomir Nestorovic and Thomas Friang. The Global Foresight Council brings together ambassadors, Nobel laureates, senior executives, policymakers and leading academics to examine and reflect on the geopolitical transformations that are shaping the global business environment.

The Council’s purpose is not to predict the future. It is to reflect on the geopolitical megatrends that can accelerate, amplify and complicate the way CEOs face uncertainty in a world of polycrisis. It is meant to strengthen ESSEC’s capabilities to help organisations identify geopolitical disruptions that intersect with sustainability challenges and technological revolutions currently shifting the paradigm of our economies.

Business leaders need to be able to navigate these interconnected challenges with confidence and have the ability to see that decisions made on one side of the world can ripple into how the opposite operates. Leadership will not depend on just expertise within a single discipline, but the ability to connect many into one centre of knowledge. 

This requires a different mindset: rather than searching for certainty, leaders must find comfort in the ambiguity of today’s landscape. This involves evaluating scenarios, adapting quickly to changing conditions and making informed decisions despite incomplete information. 

Geopolitical literacy cannot be an optional extra or a specialist interest for the next generation of business leaders. It is a fundamental skill – as essential as finance or strategy. Business schools that fail to teach it are not simply behind the curve, they are failing to prepare their graduates for a world they will actually have to lead in.

Vincenzo Vinzi has been dean of France’s ESSEC Business School since 2017.

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