In a world that’s increasingly volatile, it has been a particularly chaotic couple of weeks. The fact that a 20-year amateur assassin came within inches of killing a presidential candidate is troubling. An incumbent bowing out of the presidential election weeks before is unprecedented. The CrowdStrike incident exposed vulnerabilities in cloud computing. Hezbollah and Houthi attacks on Israel could spark yet another war, and threaten shipping lanes in the Red Sea. Tensions have never been higher.

We are not here to sway your vote, but to point out that businesses face a new set of risks. What if uncertainty in the Middle East sparks higher energy prices and persistent inflation?

Americans are increasingly frustrated by politicians whose deceptions range from bold-faced lies to fundamental mistruths told to spin their narratives. The fringes of both political parties have demonstrated their ability to spark violence in recent years. There is a clear and present danger that the presidential election outcome could cause civil unrest, regardless of the winner.

Both Trump and Harris have highly unfavorable ratings, so neither are likely to unite the country like Obama and Reagan did. According to Gallup, 43% of voters are independents. It’s not the base of either party that will decide this election–it will be their ability to galvanize undecideds. One loud minority or the other will be very unhappy.

The attack on the Capitol wasn’t the only time in recent memory of a messy transfer of power. Remember “hanging chads”? When the 2000 election was unclear, it took a split Supreme Court to settle it. What if there were another constitutional crisis?

Could workers refuse to report to work? Could businesses who have supported a party or a cause be ransacked as during the 2020 riots? It’s time once again for companies to walk softly on political matters and consider their contingency plans in the event of business disruptions. Our politicians need to find better ways to disagree. Is there a lesson here for all of us?

We also know that with chaos comes opportunity. There will be a reset on a slew of issues like the regulatory environment, interest rates, green energy and more. Some businesses will filter out the noise and identify opportunities, like Xander Schauffele on the back 9 of a major (he shot a 65 on Sunday to win the British Open after doing the same at the PGA in May).

The “Blue Screen of Death” associated with Microsoft since the ’90s struck millions of devices worldwide on Friday.

The network meltdown spanned industries from airlines to financial sectors and courthouses. Elon Musk referred to it as the biggest IT failure ever, and ordered removal of the software from all his company’s systems.

CrowdStrike, a company with more than 29,000 employees, was ironically born out of a need to safeguard Microsoft machines from wide-scale cyberattacks.

One if its products known as Falcon not only updates CrowdStrike software, but the Microsoft Operating System itself. A vulnerability is that its open design allows developers to provide “kernel” updates that can bring down an entire network.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Safety Review Board found that “Microsoft’s security culture was inadequate,” noting it is particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks from foreign actors, in part because it uses an open design. Companies will have to rethink their reliance on Microsoft, and their continuity plans as well.

Some suggest that planning is less useful in a world where companies face a collision with reality the day after a strategy session. But strategy has never been more important. Businesses must have a level of preparation their customers expect and their work demands. If anything, they should make their strategic planning processes more agile. In this week’s Strategy Page, we share resources that companies can use to prepare for the years ahead: