Article
The strategic cost of dependency
Why concentrated exposure to critical technologies, materials and infrastructure is becoming a board-level issue across industries.
Understand where competition between major powers can change the rules under which the enterprise competes and operates
We connect strategic rivalry, alliances and economic policy to the markets, technologies and dependencies most exposed to geopolitical fragmentation.
Competition between major powers increasingly shapes commercial conditions through technology controls, industrial policy, alliances, investment screening and competing standards. Companies can remain commercially attractive in several markets while finding it progressively harder to serve them through one integrated operating model. The consequences often emerge gradually through suppliers, technology choices and capital allocation before they become visible as formal market restrictions. Great-power analysis identifies where enterprise strategy depends on assumptions of openness, interoperability or neutrality that may become less durable as geopolitical alignment hardens.
Focus
Great-power rivalry is reshaping the rules of international business
Competition between major powers affects technology, trade, capital, standards and the strategic position of multinational firms.
Read nowStrategic Challenges
Where could great-power rivalry force the business to choose sides?
The challenge is identifying activities that may become incompatible across competing regulatory and geopolitical blocs.
Read nowStrategic Impacts
Rivalry analysis clarifies where geopolitical fragmentation can affect strategy
Understanding exposure across markets, technologies and supply networks helps management test the durability of global operating assumptions.
Read nowObserved Patterns
Companies often assume they can remain commercially neutral between rival blocs
Neutrality becomes harder when governments impose incompatible rules, technology controls or market-access conditions.
Read nowStrategic Challenges
Where could great-power rivalry force the business to choose sides?
The challenge is identifying activities that may become incompatible across competing regulatory and geopolitical blocs.
Read nowStrategic Impacts
Rivalry analysis clarifies where geopolitical fragmentation can affect strategy
Understanding exposure across markets, technologies and supply networks helps management test the durability of global operating assumptions.
Read nowObserved Patterns
Companies often assume they can remain commercially neutral between rival blocs
Neutrality becomes harder when governments impose incompatible rules, technology controls or market-access conditions.
Read nowPOV
Corporate neutrality has limits when states redefine economic activity as security
Businesses may eventually face strategic choices that cannot be solved through compliance or market diversification alone.
Read nowOur approach
Translate strategic rivalry into the specific market, technology and operating assumptions that could become unstable
Our approach begins by identifying the enterprise dependencies most exposed to major-power rivalry across markets, technology, supply chains, capital and partnerships. We map relevant state objectives, alliances and policy instruments and develop scenarios for how competition could intensify or stabilize. Each scenario is translated into implications for access, standards, localization, sourcing and investment. We then identify strategic assumptions that are robust across scenarios and those requiring optionality, diversification or earlier action, focusing leadership attention on the business choices most sensitive to geopolitical fragmentation.
The data and estimates presented are indicative and intended for illustrative purposes. Actual outcomes may vary based on each company’s specific context, market conditions, operating model, implementation choices, and the quality and consistency of execution, including actions undertaken by the client.
Keypillars
Explore the key pillars that define this capability and shape how we create focused, measurable business impact.
Strategic rivalry
Examines how competition among major powers reshapes trade, technology, capital flows, standards, alliances, and market access
Enterprise exposure
Identifies where business operations, suppliers, technologies, customers, and investments intersect with areas of geopolitical contestation
Alignment choices
Assesses how competing regulatory, technological, and political systems affect partnership, investment, sourcing, and market decisions
How could intensifying competition between major powers constrain where and how your business operates?
Get in touch with our Great power competition and business implications team to assess strategic exposure, dependencies and operating consequences.
Get in touchStrategic Framework
Explore our Strategic Framework
Explore our strategic framework applied to page_title and discover which model we apply to help you achieve your goals and objectives.
Discover our framework01. Map rivalry
Assess strategic competition across trade, technology, security, finance, standards, resources, and influence
06. Track competition
Monitor policy shifts, alliances, controls, coercive measures, and flashpoints affecting business conditions
05. Evaluate choices
Assess market, investment, sourcing, technology, partnership, and governance options under strategic rivalry
02. Trace blocs
Identify alliances, partnerships, dependencies, and areas where states are aligning or resisting alignment
03. Locate exposure
Map enterprise markets, assets, technology, supply chains, capital, and partnerships across competing powers
04. Model divergence
Test implications of deeper technological, economic, regulatory, financial, and security fragmentation
How we help
Identify where major-power rivalry could change enterprise strategy, market access and technology choices
We provide great-power competition analysis across markets, technology, supply chains, alliances and investment. The work can include scenario development, strategic dependency mapping, policy and alignment analysis, technology exposure and footprint implications. Outputs clarify which enterprise assumptions are most vulnerable to geopolitical fragmentation, how rivalry could affect access and economics across major markets and where optionality, localization, diversification or portfolio changes may become necessary as strategic competition intensifies.
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Great-power exposure assessment
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US-China exposure analysis
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Major-power bloc scenario analysis
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Technology decoupling exposure
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Cross-bloc supply chain exposure
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Cross-bloc market exposure
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Investment screening exposure
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Standards fragmentation impact
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Financial decoupling exposure
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Research collaboration exposure
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Talent mobility exposure
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Strategic autonomy implications
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Major-power procurement exposure
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Great-power scenario planning
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Strategic competition monitoring
Explore our FAQs
Find answers to the most common questions about this service, including key features, processes, and practical considerations. Explore our FAQs for additional insights and guidance.
It can shape trade, technology access, investment screening, standards, supply chains and the political acceptability of cross-border relationships.
Those dependent on sensitive technologies, cross-border capital, concentrated supply chains or markets central to competing state interests.
Map revenue, sourcing, technology and capital dependencies across competing blocs and test where future rules could become incompatible.
In some sectors, but neutrality becomes harder where governments impose controls, localization requirements or restrictions on counterparties.
Consider policy direction, market access and technology restrictions alongside conventional demand and return assumptions.
Watch export controls, sanctions, investment screening, industrial policy and efforts to separate technology or supply ecosystems.
Limit irreversible concentration and maintain alternative suppliers, markets and technology pathways where political constraints could tighten.
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Editorial overview
Articles
Industrial policy is rewriting competitive economics
How subsidies, export controls and state intervention can alter the relative attractiveness of markets, technologies and investment locations.
Read articleThe strategic cost of dependency
Why concentrated exposure to critical technologies, materials and infrastructure is becoming a board-level issue across industries.
Read articleFocus
Strategic dependencies become visible when access can no longer be assumed
Critical suppliers, technologies, infrastructure and jurisdictions can expose companies to decisions made outside their control.
Conflict escalation matters when enterprise exposure changes faster than plans
The issue is how deteriorating security conditions alter operations, people, logistics, assets and market access.
Strategic challenges
How much instability can a market absorb before business conditions break?
The challenge is distinguishing manageable volatility from deterioration that changes operating viability or investment logic.
Where is state intervention changing the economics of competition?
The challenge is distinguishing temporary policy support from structural shifts that can alter industry investment and location choices.