We are witnessing a turning point in how companies think about strategy, strategic marketing, and management models.
After a long period dominated by urgency, tactical experimentation, and an obsession with short-term metrics, it has become clear that efficiency without direction does not create sustainable value.
The first major takeaway is that business strategy must increasingly be assumed as a conscious choice, rather than a mere reaction to the market. In a context of geopolitical instability, pressure on margins, technological acceleration, and more informed consumers, companies realize that they cannot serve everyone, be present in every channel, or compete solely on price. Strategic clarity must be embraced as a critical success asset.
In strategic marketing, 2025 marked the end of the illusion of continuous growth supported solely by digital performance. Many brands discovered, too late, that optimizing clicks does not mean building relationships. There was a renewed investment in brand and in factors such as trust and coherence, both in B2C and B2B. Storytelling ceased to be merely cosmetic and became structural, through clear value propositions, concrete proof points, and consistent experiences throughout the entire customer journey.
The year also highlighted multiple cases of business myopia. Companies focused exclusively on cost reduction degraded service and lost strategic customers. Others, obsessed with operational efficiency, overcomplicated digital processes to the point of alienating less technologically savvy users. In B2B, some organizations automated relationships, replacing experienced account managers with generic workflows, failing precisely where the customer expected proximity, understanding, and judgment. In B2C, brands that confused personalization with intrusion saw trust deteriorate rapidly.
At the management level, 2025 leaves us with a key learning through the consolidation of a new model: managing is no longer just about controlling historical indicators, but about orchestrating future decisions. Overly financial management models proved insufficient to deal with complexity, uncertainty, and accelerated change. In this context, the adoption of strategic foresight frameworks increased, with alternative scenarios, forward-looking indicators, and structured reflection on risks of irrelevance.
Artificial intelligence played a decisive role here, not only as an automation tool, but as support for strategic decision-making: demand forecasting, dynamic pricing, advanced segmentation, and impact simulation. However, 2025 clearly showed that competitive advantage does not lie in the technology itself, but in the quality of the strategic thinking that guides it. Without vision, AI merely accelerates poor decisions.
In the B2B market, the growing maturity of strategic marketing stood out, with a focus on demonstrable economic value, trust, and long-term relationships. In B2C, priorities shifted from acquisition to retention, and from awareness to the total customer experience.
More than anticipating 2026, one conclusion stands out: the winning companies will not be the fastest, nor the most digital, but those that think better. Strengthening strategic thinking, avoiding short-term myopia, and placing the customer at the center of real decisions – and not merely of rhetoric – will be decisive.
Wishing everyone an excellent year!
Pedro Celeste, Professor at CATÓLICA-LISBON