Tariff Shocks and How to Cope (Commercial Vehicle Edition)
In recent months, the commercial vehicle industry has found itself at the center of a shifting geopolitical chessboard. The election of President Donald Trump and the recent announcement of sweeping new tariff policies—followed by a 90-day pause—have thrown supply chains into uncertainty, disrupted investment planning and increased the cost of doing business.
For OEMs and suppliers alike, understanding how these dynamics will play out is essential to identifying flexible strategic options that enable long-term competitiveness.
Enter Game Theory
Game theory, the science of strategic interactions between stakeholders, provides a powerful lens to anticipate how players—governments, OEMs, and suppliers—will behave in complex, high-stakes environments.
At its core, each game’s outcome is based on three fundamental questions: Who are the players? What are their options? And what do they want? From there, game theory models how each actor is likely to respond to the choices of others, helping leaders "look around corners" and make better decisions in times of uncertainty.