The year 2025 served as a harsh wake-up call for corporate India. Boardrooms across the nation were repeatedly blindsided by events that were not only predictable but often had published timelines. From regulatory shifts to supply chain vulnerabilities, companies faced severe financial and operational consequences for a failure of strategic anticipation, not a lack of information.
The Four Patterns of Wilful Blindness
An analysis of major corporate crises in 2025 reveals four distinct, recurring patterns where companies chose to ignore clear warning signs until it was too late.
1. The Compliance Delusion: Treating Rules as Paperwork
A prime example unfolded in the aviation sector. IndiGo, India's largest airline, knew for months about new pilot roster norms mandated by regulators. Despite the published timeline, the company took no substantive action. The result was catastrophic: over a thousand flights were cancelled in November 2025 alone, punctuality rates plunged to single digits, and the airline lost thousands of crores in market capitalization. This was a scheduled change, not a surprise.
The pattern repeated in financial markets. When the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) expanded insider trading rules in June 2025, companies acted shocked. The core requirement—to log sensitive data like credit rating changes and litigation outcomes into digital databases within two days—had existed since 2019. Enforcement tightened around 2022 when stock exchanges began demanding compliance certificates. By 2025, exchanges were inspecting systems and naming non-compliant firms on their websites. Companies that had years to prepare were caught without basic systems, revealing that compliance was treated as mere paperwork until enforcement gained teeth.
2. Supply Chain Concentration: Ignoring the Dress Rehearsal
In April 2025, China tightened export controls on seven rare earth elements crucial for electric vehicles and semiconductors. Indian manufacturers like Maruti and Bajaj Auto appeared stunned, slashing production targets for models like the e-Vitara. This move came after years of progressive Chinese restrictions, yet companies maintained just-in-time philosophies and single-point dependencies for critical inputs, despite the clear warning provided by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This concentration risk poses a monumental threat to another pillar of Indian industry: pharmaceuticals. India imports 70-80% of its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) from China, operating with just two to three months of buffer stock. If China applied rare earth-style export licensing to APIs, India's status as the "pharmacy of the world" could face a crippling blow from a risk every boardroom can see but few address.
3. The ESG Illusion: When Greenwashing Meets the Law
In 2025, Indian companies learned that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) promises could turn into strict legal obligations. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) found that 79% of corporate green claims were exaggerated or misleading. Regulators responded with severe penalties: two years' imprisonment and ₹10,00,000 fines for first offences, and five years with ₹50,00,000 fines for repeats.
The problem ran deeper than advertising. Major electronics firms, including Samsung, LG, Daikin, Carrier, Hitachi, and Havells, sued the government over rules requiring them to recycle 80% of electronic waste by March 2026, calling the targets "unrealistic." This conflict highlighted a core issue: companies often build ESG narratives for investor presentations, not operational reality. A 2023 survey by the Centre for Policy Research found that only 8% of Indian companies reported Scope 3 emissions (their indirect value chain footprint), and fewer than 15% aligned with global reporting frameworks.
4. Succession Paralysis: Assuming Harmony Without a Plan
Governance failures extended to the very top of family-run businesses. Research from Entrust Family Office shows that fewer than 50% of Indian business families have documented succession plans. The sudden death of 53-year-old Sunjay Kapur of Sona BLW triggered immediate family disputes, a scenario repeated across India Inc. Boards often assume family harmony and business logic will magically align when needed.
Compounding the problem, HSBC research reveals 45% of entrepreneurs don't expect the next generation to run their businesses, and only 7% of heirs feel obligated to take over. The new generation is globally educated, tech-focused, and frequently uninterested in legacy manufacturing. Yet, boards maintain governance structures assuming 30-year-olds will eventually want to run traditional businesses like ball-bearing companies.
The Root Cause and the Necessary Solution
None of these scenarios were surprises. Indian boardrooms were caught napping because companies excel at tactical, crisis-driven execution but invest minimally in strategic foresight. The blind spot is not a lack of information, but a systemic unwillingness to act on what is already known.
The solution, therefore, is not more data. It requires a fundamental shift in governance. Boards need structures designed for anticipation rather than reaction. They must integrate formal foresight processes, mandate scenario planning for known risks like supply chain concentration, treat compliance and ESG as core strategic pillars, and insist on documented, pragmatic succession plans. The crises of 2025 proved that brilliant reaction is no substitute for proactive vision.
