The Business Emergency Room: For Leaders Facing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity (VUCA) cover art

The Business Emergency Room: For Leaders Facing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity (VUCA)

The Business Emergency Room: For Leaders Facing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity (VUCA)

Written by: Maartje van Krieken | The Chaos Games Consulting
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 Scaling a business isn’t just about strategy—it’s about navigating chaos, making fast but sound decisions, and keeping teams aligned under pressure. The Business Emergency Room helps leaders, founders, and decision-makers sharpen their decision-making mechanics, master people dynamics, and build resilience in uncertain markets. Host Maartje van Krieken shares battle-tested frameworks to eliminate bottlenecks, avoid analysis paralysis, and turn turbulence into traction. Tune in weekly for real-world insights to lead with confidence and thrive in turmoil. For leaders facing: High-stakes decisions, VUCA market conditions, crisis management, and rapid business growth pains.Copyright 2026 Maartje van Krieken | The Chaos Games Consulting Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • This Can Happen to You: Real-Time Business Triage

    This Can Happen to You: Real-Time Business Triage
    May 6 2026

    When systems fail, supply chains stall, or customers are left waiting for answers, leaders need more than a fix. They need triage. Maartje van Krieken uses the CDK Global cyber incident and Mississippi’s liquor distribution breakdown to show how business emergencies often come from fragile systems, hidden dependencies, and small cracks that were easier to miss before everything stopped.

    The core question becomes simple and urgent: what still works? From there, leaders have to separate recovery from continuity. One team may be restoring the system, but someone still has to protect the business in real time. Who needs an update? What can still move? Where is the bottleneck? Who has the authority to make the next call?

    Maartje also gets honest about why crisis response feels so hard from the inside. People are stressed, customers are angry, and teams can get stuck defending past decisions instead of making the next one. This conversation is a sharp reminder that waiting for the full picture can cost you time, trust, and options. The real work is to find the signal, create a decision rhythm, and stop the damage from spreading before disruption becomes rupture.

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:00 Business Emergency Triage in Real Time

    02:52 CDK Global Cyber Incident Case Study

    05:49 Business Continuity During a System Outage

    09:07 Crisis Communication and Customer Trust

    12:13 Supply Chain Breakdown in Mississippi

    17:49 Structural Bottlenecks and Business Risk

    21:05 How to Prevent Future Business Ruptures

    Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

    Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

    Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

    Visit The Business Emergency Room website

    Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

    Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

    Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction.

    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm
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    23 mins
  • Flatlining at Exit: When Your Business Isn’t Sellable

    Flatlining at Exit: When Your Business Isn’t Sellable
    Apr 29 2026
    A business can look strong from the inside and still raise red flags when a buyer takes a closer look.Laurie Barkman joins Maartje van Krieken to talk about what makes a business transferable, valuable, and ready for transition. Laurie is the founder of Business Transition Sherpa, author of The Business Transition Handbook, a certified exit planner, an M&A advisor, and a former $100M CEO who led a company through a successful acquisition by a Fortune 50 company.Many owners wait until burnout, age, health, partner pressure, or market stress forces the conversation. By then, the business may run well day to day but still be fragile as an asset. What happens when customer relationships live mostly in the owner’s head? What if contracts are informal, leadership depends on one person, or key partners have never talked honestly about the future?Laurie breaks down the three forms of readiness every owner needs to consider: personal, financial, and business. For leaders who are not ready to sell today, this conversation still matters. The same work that makes a business more attractive to a buyer often makes it easier to run right now through better systems, stronger contracts, less owner dependence, and more clarity around risk, value, and future options.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Understanding Business Sellability vs. Business Success02:59 Why Business Owners Pursue Exits, Mergers, and Acquisitions06:04 Personal Readiness and the Emotional Side of Business Transitions09:14 Financial Readiness: What Is Your Business Really Worth?15:02 What Makes a Business Attractive to Buyers?Connect with Laurie Barkman:Visit Laurie's websiteConnect with Laurie on LinkedInSuccessor AssessmentThe Business Transition HandbookLaurie Barkman is a nationally recognized growth strategist, speaker, and CEO who helps engineering, architecture, and design services firm owners scale their companies with clarity and confidence. She is the founder of The Business Transition Sherpa®, author of The Business Transition Handbook, and host of the award-winning Succession Stories podcast.A Certified Exit Planner, M&A Advisor, and former $100M CEO who led a company through a successful acquisition by a Fortune 50, Laurie brings real-world leadership and transition expertise to every engagement. Today, she empowers AEC industry owners in the built environment to build scalable, self-sustaining businesses that grow without depending on them, creating more time, freedom, and lasting value.Connect with Maartje van Krieken:Connect with Maartje on LinkedInVisit The Chaos Games Consulting websiteVisit The Business Emergency Room websiteSubscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTubeSubscribe to Maartje’s SubstackHost Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction.Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm
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    33 mins
  • Decide or Drift: A High-Stakes Decision Protocol

    Decide or Drift: A High-Stakes Decision Protocol
    Apr 22 2026

    When the pressure is real, the most dangerous move is no move at all.

    High stakes decision making sits at the center of this conversation and Maartje van Krieken tackles a problem many leaders know too well. Teams rarely freeze because they lack smart people or good intentions. They freeze because the stakes feel so high that delay starts to look safer than action. This episode speaks directly to decision paralysis in business and shows why waiting for certainty can cost more than a hard call made in real time for any company under strain.

    Maartje shares a practical business decision framework for leaders who are facing decision-making under pressure. She strips away the fantasy of perfect data and gets honest about making decisions with incomplete information when cash flow, market shifts, supplier risk, or leadership choices are on the line. Her approach is simple enough to use in the real world and sharp enough to help teams cut through noise, narrow the true choice, and focus on the few unknowns that matter most.

    What gives this conversation weight is its focus on movement. The goal is not to chase a flawless answer. The goal is to reduce risk fast enough to act with clarity and adjust as new facts emerge. That makes this a powerful episode on crisis decision making for founders, operators, and executives who feel stuck in long loops of meetings and analysis. If high stakes decision making is slowing your team down, this episode offers a smarter way to move forward with confidence and far less second guessing.

    Episode Breakdown:

    00:01 High Stakes Decision Making and Why Businesses Freeze

    02:20 Decision Paralysis in Business and the Cost of Delay

    04:45 Decision Triage and How to Define the Real Business Decision

    09:25 How to Build the Right Team for High Pressure Decisions

    14:07 Narrowing the Best Options in High Stakes Decision Making

    16:58 De-Risking Big Decisions With Better Data and AI

    21:37 Short Decision Cycles That Improve Decision-Making Under Pressure

    23:57 Triggers, Reversibility, and Course Correction in Crisis Decision Making

    26:50 Supplier Risk Example for Fast Business Decision Making

    29:05 Why Fast Action Beats Waiting for a Perfect Decision

    Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

    Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

    Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

    Visit The Business Emergency Room website

    Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

    Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

    Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction.

    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm
    Show More Show Less
    31 mins
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