Adaptive Crisis Strategy

Grounded in the experience of top leaders and informed by research, Adaptive Crisis Strategy explains why crisis strategies fail, and how adaptive organizations build resilience through sharper sensemaking, faster learning, and coordinated decision-making. This book provides a practical framework for anticipating shocks, adapting in real time, and strengthening crisis readiness across the organization. It combines rigorous analysis with hard-won leadership insight to offer a clear guide for navigating uncertainty, pressure and change. Rick Aalbers, Killian McCarthy, and Arjan Groen are recognized authorities in business research and practice. Their work has appeared in MIT Sloan Management Review and Harvard Business Review, among other leading outlets. It explores crisis, resilience, strategic change, and leadership under pressure.

Prof. dr. Rick Aalbers is Full Professor of Corporate Restructuring and Innovation at Radboud University, Netherlands. His work focuses on how organizations confront upheaval, resolve internal tensions, and unlock innovation under pressure. Widely published, his work appeared in leading journals including Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Research Policy, and Long Range Planning, bridging academic insight with practical relevance for executives facing crisis situations. Previously a manager at Deloitte, and currently a supervisory board member at a national healthcare provider and volunteer firefighter, he is actively involved in guiding organizations of varying scale during strategic and operational crises. Arjan Groen is a veteran of high-stakes corporate transformation. As former Head of M&A at Wolters Kluwer and later Senior Partner at EY, he has led more than 120 complex restructurings, often during critical moments of financial or strategic instability. A three-time President’s Award winner, Arjan specializes in aligning leadership, navigating fractured organizations, and executing turnaround strategies under extreme pressure. Dr. Killian McCarthy is Associate Professor of Strategy at Radboud University, Netherlands, and Full Professor of Practice at the Kyiv School of Economics, Ukraine. His research focuses on how firms create, sustain, and renew value under conditions of uncertainty, disruption, and crisis. Killian’s work has appeared in leading scientific journals as well as high-impact practitioner journals. Alongside his academic roles, Killian leads an EU-funded project developing a roadmap for Ukraine’s reconstruction, supervises executive research on innovation and reorganisation at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, serves on a variety of supervisory and advisory boards, and works through his own advisory practice, bridging academic insight with practical relevance for advisors, executives, and organizations facing strategic change.