From safety to swagger

After five years spent bullet-proofing themselves, companies now face pressure to grow

For much of the 2020s, the watchwords for corporate leaders were ‘resilience’ and ‘caution’. Firms navigated the introduction of artificial intelligence, a shrinking post-pandemic labour force, higher interest rates, tariff uncertainty, margin pressure, supply-chain bottlenecks, volatile commodity prices and mounting geopolitical risk. Remarkably, they emerged intact: the median S&P 500 company grew its earnings per share by 8.8% over the past five years, while its European counterpart, measured by the Stoxx 600, managed 7.9%.

That resilience earned its reward. Investors, unnerved by disruption, prized stability over growth, and companies obliged by hoarding cash, shoring up balance sheets and avoiding risk. A survey of American chief financial officers shows that concerns about trade and tariffs have fallen sharply since the second quarter of 2025, while worries about inflation, monetary policy and labour quality have risen — a return, in other words, to the “normal” anxieties of running a business.

That shift in mood is not merely psychological.