Focus in Chaos

Why the Leaders Who Tune Out the Noise Are the Ones Still Standing

That’s not from a mindfulness guru or a self-help podcast. It’s a food industry president, mid-conversation back in January, talking about how he actually runs his organisation.

And right now, in early March 2026, those words feel almost prophetic.

As I write this, the Strait of Hormuz - the narrow waterway through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply passes, has effectively ground to a halt. Following coordinated US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the killing of Supreme Leader Khamenei, Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes have spread across the Gulf. Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have suspended all crossings. Ships are rerouting around Africa. Oil prices have jumped 13%. European natural gas has nearly doubled. And one-third of the world’s fertiliser trade (a lifeline for global food production) flows through that same strait.

If you’re a leader in the food and ingredients industry, you woke up this week to a new reality. Again.

But here’s the thing. The leader I was speaking to? He’d already made his peace with this kind of chaos, months ago.

The Conversation That Started This

I recently sat down with a business leader in the US food ingredients sector, someone running a mid-market operation, producing specialty ingredients for some of the biggest names in confectionery and indulgent foods. Our conversation was meant to be a catch-up on how their year was shaping up. It turned into something much more interesting.

We talked about tariffs. We talked about the uncertainty of US trade policy and whether the current administration’s approach was creating more instability than it was solving. We talked about rising input costs, volatile commodity markets, and the knock-on effects of geopolitical decisions that no one in the food industry has any control over.

And then he said something that stopped me: “You’ve just got to focus on the things you can control.”

Not said with frustration. Said with clarity. The kind of clarity that only comes from having already lived through the noise and decided to stop letting it dictate the strategy.

What “Focus” Actually Looked Like

This wasn’t motivational rhetoric. This was a leader who had already made some brutally difficult calls - and they’d paid off.

Over the previous year, his company had cut its workforce nearly in half, consolidating from two shifts down to one. They made sweeping changes to procurement. They reorganised the relationship between their commercial and technical teams, pairing a commercially-savvy head of sales with a brilliant head of research and getting those two functions working as a genuine partnership rather than separate silos.

The result? 

They got 17–18% more product out the door with a smaller team. They blew past their own business projections. And, they did it while the rest of the industry was tying itself in knots over tariff announcements and policy U-turns.

That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you decide that the headlines are not your strategy.

The World Has Only Got Louder 

Let’s be honest about the environment we’re operating in. Since that conversation took place, the noise has only intensified.

A McKinsey survey from January 2026 found that business leaders globally now rank geopolitical instability as their principal risk - ahead of trade policy, which had been the dominant concern for most of 2025. A RELEX Solutions report published this week reveals that 86% of supply chain leaders are feeling the direct impact of tariffs, with 34% citing rising input costs as their single greatest pressure.

The food industry specifically is facing what Food Dive described as “an uphill growth battle,” with retail food and beverage sales growth forecasts being revised downward. The CEO of Nestlé USA put it bluntly: the operating environment remains difficult, and he doesn’t see that changing in the near term.

And now we have the Strait of Hormuz crisis layering on top. Energy costs spiking. Fertiliser supply routes compromised. Shipping rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope, adding weeks and roughly $1 million in fuel costs per voyage. The AP reported this week that shortages and price increases across a wide range of goods are now expected if the conflict continues.

For anyone in the food and ingredients space, every single one of these developments has the potential to derail your morning, your week and your quarter.

If you let it.

The Discipline of Not Reacting

What struck me most about that conversation wasn’t the operational turnaround, as impressive as it was. It was the mental framework behind it.

Both of us agreed: there’s an enormous difference between being informed and being reactive. You can’t ignore the Strait of Hormuz. You can’t pretend tariffs aren’t real. But there’s a difference between acknowledging a risk and allowing that risk to paralyse your decision-making.

The leaders I work with across the food and ingredients industry who are performing best right now share a common trait. They’re not the ones with the best crystal ball. They’re the ones with the tightest operational grip. They’re making decisions about their teams, their processes, and their customer relationships, decisions about the things that will matter regardless of what happens in the Gulf or on Capitol Hill.

The leader I spoke to had been watching the GLP-1 drug revolution reshape the confections market. The weight-loss medications dropping from $1,000 a month toward $100, with some California-based companies developing food molecule alternatives that have already passed clinical trials. That’s an existential conversation for anyone in indulgent foods. But instead of panicking, he was innovating: working on his product pipeline, strengthening the technical-commercial partnership in his team, and positioning the business to respond rather than react.

What This Means for You

I’m not suggesting anyone stick their head in the sand. An Argon & Co survey of over 800 C-suite executives found that cost inflation, workforce challenges, and technological change remain the persistent top-three pressures in our industry, and that’s before layering in a fresh geopolitical crisis. Food Navigator reported just yesterday that bakery, snack, and cereal manufacturers face rising costs as the Iranian conflict threatens supply chains across energy, fertiliser, and shipping markets simultaneously.

These are real. But here’s what I’ve observed: the companies that emerge strongest from periods of volatility are never the ones who spent their energy tracking every headline. They’re the ones who used that energy to tighten operations, build the right team combinations, and move faster than competitors who were too busy worrying.

The conversation I had reinforced something I’ve seen repeatedly in this industry: the competitive advantage in chaos isn’t better information. It’s better focus.

Three Questions Worth Asking Yourself This Week

1. What decision are you delaying because you’re waiting for “clarity” that isn’t coming?

The leader I spoke to didn’t wait for the tariff picture to settle before restructuring his operation. He moved. If there’s a decision sitting on your desk that you keep pushing to “next quarter,” ask yourself honestly: is it the timing that’s wrong, or is it the comfort of indecision?

2. Are your commercial and technical teams genuinely partnered, or just co-existing?

One of the most powerful things to come out of our conversation was how critical the intersection of technical and commercial talent has been to their success. Not just hiring good people — but creating the conditions for those people to truly collaborate. That’s a leadership decision, not an HR initiative.

3. How much of your mental bandwidth is being consumed by things you cannot influence?

The Strait of Hormuz will either reopen or it won’t. Tariffs will either ease or they won’t. The Supreme Court will rule on IEEPA authority when it rules. None of that changes what you can do tomorrow morning inside your own four walls.

The food and ingredients industry has always operated at the intersection of global forces. At the mercy of  commodity markets, geopolitics, regulation, consumer behaviour. In 2026, those forces are converging with an intensity that feels unprecedented.

But the leaders who are winning aren’t the ones with the best analysis of what might happen next. They’re the ones who’ve decided what they’re going to do regardless.

Focus in chaos isn’t a luxury. It’s the strategy.

---

Mike Meyrick

Meyrick Consulting

Leadership Transformation in the Food & Ingredients Industry

—

If this resonated, I’d love to hear how you’re navigating the current uncertainty. What’s the one thing you’re choosing to focus on despite the noise? Drop a comment or send me a message — these conversations are always the most valuable ones.