Leading Through Uncertainty
How to Maintain Resilient Leadership in Manufacturing
6 min read
An interview with Carsten Liske, CEO, Kellenberger | Leading Through Uncertainty
Our ‘Leading Through Uncertainty’ series explores how senior leaders manage continual complexity and ambiguity. In a world where change is the only constant, we spotlight inspirational stories of leadership in uncertain times.
Carsten joined Kellenberger as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors in April 2025, introduced by Odgers’ Emanuel Pfister. Carsten discussed the global competitive and sustainability pressures of the sector, valuable leadership behaviours and advice for board and executive teams.
What Does “Leading Through Uncertainty” Mean To You Personally?
Leading through uncertainty, for me, means providing a clear vision and stable values, even when external conditions are volatile. It is about offering clarity of direction and consistency in what we stand for, anchoring the organisation in a long-term strategy, such as Kellenberger's commitment to innovation, sustainability and global positioning.
At the same time, it requires remaining agile and adaptable to sudden market shifts, technological disruptions or geopolitical changes.
What Are The Biggest Challenges Or Disruptions Currently Shaping Your Sector?
In our industry, I see four key challenges:
- The machine tool sector is intensely competitive, with strong Asian players increasingly shaping the landscape in Europe and North America.
- Digitisation, automation, and AI are reshaping both our customers’ production processes and our own. The difficulty lies in distinguishing genuine gamechangers from short-lived hype.
- Although temporarily overshadowed by economic concerns, the demand for energy-efficient and environmentally responsible solutions is not going away, driven by regulators, customers, and future generations. These expectations must be met without increasing costs while still improving performance.
- Fluctuating demand cycles and geopolitical uncertainty affect our customers’ investment decisions, which directly influences capital equipment orders for us.
Despite these challenges, I remain positive. Uncertainty also brings opportunities and today’s environment simply amplifies the familiar dynamics our industry has always navigated.
How Are Leadership Expectations Evolving In Response To These Changes?
In the past, a leader was judged almost entirely on financial results, whereas today, expectations are far broader. Leaders need resilience, foresight and responsibility on top of financial performance, because maximising this quarter’s numbers can easily create tomorrow’s risks. Focusing only on the short term is simply too narrow.
Stakeholders now expect CEOs to be visionaries who embrace innovation, foster global collaboration, and integrate sustainability into the core business. And of course, none of this happens overnight. It’s about widening the lens beyond pure financials, thinking longer-term, and understanding how today’s decisions shape future opportunities.
You also can’t judge effective leadership after just 12 months. Real impact becomes clear five or 10 years later when you can see which strategies created value and which ones didn’t. For me, good leadership is about creating degrees of freedom for future decisions rather than boxing the organisation into a corner.
Explaining this to employees, global teams and stakeholders is one of the biggest challenges, because many still expect clear, fixed, black and white roadmaps. But today leadership is more about defining a direction and long-term goals while creating options along the way. It’s no longer a single linear sequence; it’s the ability to respond intelligently to what happens next.
Can You Share A Particular Example Of Kellenberger Traversing Uncertainty?
In our industry, downturns are part of the cycle. When business drops, most companies immediately cut costs. But during the last downturn, Kellenberger took a different path. Rather than pulling back, we chose to invest countercyclically in R&D.
A deliberate decision that enabled us to approach our customers with new, more powerful and more efficient machines, strengthening our position and winning new market share. At the same time, expanding our global service network was essential for deepening customer proximity and ensuring sustainable market penetration worldwide.
By preparing for future growth rather than simply defending the present, we were ready when demand rebounded and could capture that growth immediately. I see this as a proactive, anticyclical approach that turned uncertainty into a genuine opportunity. In this case, it clearly paid off.
What Other Leadership Traits Or Behaviours Do You Feel Are Valuable?
For me, the first essential behaviour is strategic clarity in articulating a long-term vision that genuinely inspires confidence. Closely linked to that, even if it sounds contradictory, is adaptability: the ability to adjust quickly to technological or market shifts.
In our industry, we also need a strong innovation mindset. That means encouraging teams to experiment, push boundaries and deeply understand customer requirements so we can become part of the solution to their challenges today and in the future.
Another critical behaviour is maintaining a global perspective. Geopolitics is pushing everything into more regional thinking, but our business remains global. We must understand diverse markets and deliver solutions that fit different regional needs.
What Advice Would You Give To Boards Or Executive Teams Preparing For Continued Uncertainty?
Keep investing in innovation even during downturns as it strengthens resilience. Diversify markets and customer segments to avoid overdependence on any single industry. Expansion into other sectors spreads the risk.
Embed sustainability into strategy and maintain strong communication with employees and customers. I spend a lot of time travelling, speaking with teams around the world, explaining where we’re heading, what challenges we face and why we’re taking certain decisions. When people understand the direction, they are far more likely to follow.
Finally, never forget your roots and stick to your values. A company with more than 100 years of history has a rich legacy to build on, not abandon.
What Are Your Top Three Tips For Success In Leadership?
- Lead with vision, always connect your daily decisions to a clear long-term strategy.
- Integrate your thought process and decisions into a strategic context to empower your teams. Innovation thrives when people feel trusted and supported. Try to build an environment where people feel safe but challenged.
- Stay resilient and adaptable. Embracing change as an opportunity rather than a threat is easily said but difficult to do.
Introduced by Odgers | Success Story
Odgers collaborated with Kellenberger to appoint a transformational CEO, with Carsten Liske commencing his role in April 2025.
To learn more about Carsten’s vision for Kellenberger and his journey with Odgers, read his unique success story below.
Introduced by Odgers | Carsten Liske Success Story
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