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A plant protection drone and long-arm sprayers tend to wheat in the field at Guhe Street in Laixi ... More city, Qingdao, Shandong province, on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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After 355 years of operation, The Bay, a large retail department store known as Canada’s oldest company, has filed for creditor protection. One of the factors for the closure was an inability to adapt to the decrease in consumer traffic post-pandemic. In an era marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, resilience is vital for long-term sustainability and firm survival. Conservative Smart Agriculture (CSA) is a global movement aimed at building resilience against the impact of climate change in order to ensure long-term sustainability. Many countries and regions are recognizing the importance of integrating conservation principles into their agricultural practices, particularly in areas facing significant agricultural challenges due to climate change, soil degradation, and resource scarcity. Admittedly, as an organizational psychologist, I haven’t thought deeply about CSA but as resilience continues to be named as a high-demand skill in the future of work, I wondered what CSA might be able to teach organizations about how they can be more strategic about helping their firm (and the employees within them) thrive as workplace conditions, skills, technology, and geopolitical relations fluctuate.
Conservative Smart Agriculture
Recently, Drs. Naveen, Datta and Behera systematically reviewed the literature on the adoption of CSA practices and produced a list of the most widely adopted practices in South Asia. After reviewing 78 studies drawn from their search of three scholarly databases, the researchers presented several agricultural practices and recommendations that can be implemented management settings to cultivate adaptability and resilience. Just as farmers adapt their agricultural strategies based on environmental conditions, below are three insights that business leaders can apply to their work to better navigate change.
3 Ways Agriculture Sheds Light on Strategic Resilience
1. Crop Diversification: The practice of growing a variety of different crops in a given area to increase biodiversity, which can improve resilience to pests, diseases, and changes in weather patterns.
The agricultural sector is constantly evolving, with farmers adopting innovative practices based on research and technology. Managers, too, must foster a culture that celebrates ongoing innovation, and openness to failure. In their Harvard Business Review article, The Quest for Resilience, Gary Hamel and Liisa Välikangas argue for the importance of strategic resilience: “Continued success no longer hinges on momentum. Rather, it rides on resilience—on the ability to dynamically reinvent business models and strategies as circumstances change. Strategic resilience is not about responding to a one time crisis or rebounding from a setback. It’s about continually anticipating and adjusting to deep, secular trends that can permanently impair the earning power of a core business. It’s about having the capacity to change even before the case for change becomes obvious.” One agile methodology they recommend for organizations is to institutionalize a process of experimentation that solicits and tracks novel idea generation from the entire company and test and measure their potential financial viability. Rather than pursuing new “grand, imperial strategies”, explore low-risk experiments widely and frequently.
2. Climate-resilient seeds: These seeds are specially bred or engineered to withstand extreme weather conditions, such as drought, floods, or extreme temperatures, to ensure food security despite climate adversity.
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