With risk becoming more complex and challenges arising faster than ever, it’s no wonder leaders can often feel as though they are facing critical decisions alone. C-suite executives shoulder huge pressure, managing a web of supply chain, climate, technology, and workforce issues in a rapidly changing business environment. It’s a setup that mirrors the complex dynamic of professional golf. There’s a perception that the sport is a solitary activity—a lone player competing against the course. But elite golf, particularly during anticipated events such as the Ryder Cup, demonstrates a more fundamental truth about managing difficult decisions under strain. Success hinges on the right partnerships—those that bring pattern recognition, grounded insight, and shared accountability. While the players command the spotlight, their ability to navigate tricky conditions depends on the people carrying the bags, reading the wind, calculating the distances, and seeing angles their partners cannot. “Like a caddie, the right advisor provides clarity under pressure,” says Sean Rider, head of advanced risk analytics in North America for Aon, the global professional services firm and long-standing partner of the Ryder Cup. “Organizations are increasingly turning to us to help them navigate complexity, identify better outcomes, and access new forms of capital.”
Like elite golfers and their caddies, leading companies use analytics to spot opportunities others miss.
From the fairway to the boardroom: Clarity under pressure
Like a caddie, the right advisor provides clarity under pressure. Organizations are increasingly turning to us to help them navigate complexity, identify better outcomes, and access new forms of capital.”
“
Sean Rider
Head of Advanced Risk Analytics, North America, Aon
As executives tune in to watch the excitement at the Bethpage Black Golf Course, they’ll recognize a familiar challenge. When the stakes are highest and the path is unclear, the savviest business leaders—like the best golfers—know when to lean on expert guidance to see what they cannot see alone.
Pattern recognition: The advantage that compounds over time
Ask most golf professionals what separates a good caddie from a great one, and they’ll point to pattern recognition. The ability to recall how a similar putt broke three years ago, to sense when afternoon winds shift direction, to know instinctively when a player needs encouragement versus hard truth. Modern risks demand similar knowledge and foresight. “One of the biggest challenges leaders face today is balancing urgent short-term decisions with thoughtful long-term strategy,” says Doug Melton, leader of client analytics for human capital at Aon. A talent retention crisis today could, for example, undermine an AI transformation strategy tomorrow, or a supply chain decision made to cut costs might amplify climate vulnerability. The patterns intersect and compound.
2.2 %
of total working hours worldwide will be lost to high temperatures—a productivity loss equivalent to 80 million full-time jobs.
Source: International Labour Organization
Aon’s partnership with the Ryder Cup reflects the firm’s broader focus: supporting leaders in moments when conditions shift quickly, strategic decisions drive competitive advantage, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
The Megatrends Driving Uncertainty
4
TRADE
TECHNOLOGY
WEATHER
WORKFORCE
Aon categorizes these interconnected risks into four megatrends driving complexity, volatility, and uncertainty for business: trade, technology, weather, and workforce. Five years ago, executives could address each in isolation. Now, these issues are interconnected variables: Organizations are increasingly utilizing technology to optimize processes such as talent acquisition, and extreme weather events are disrupting production and logistics. This interconnectedness drives leaders to new levels of business volatility. Seasoned executives, who have become experts in their domains, now face multidimensional risks that cascade and combine in unexpected ways. To support their decision-making process, they need better data and new perspectives.
In golf, as in most sports, hesitation kills momentum. Stand over a putt too long or second-guess a line, and confidence evaporates. The same psychology exists in corporate boardrooms, where the complexity of modern risk can be overwhelming.
From complexity to commercial clarity
“Indecision is as damaging as a bad decision,” says Rider, an observation that reflects a growing concern among business leaders. As threats overlap, the corporate tendency toward prolonged analysis becomes its own form of risk.
This gridlock often stems from a fundamental misalignment that Rider illustrates with an example many financial executives will recognize. When considering exposure to a major storm, a leadership team gathers to evaluate its insurance options. But without agreed-upon risk parameters, productive discussion becomes impossible. “Without shared clarity on risk magnitude, every subsequent conversation becomes an exercise in frustration. The chief financial officer pushes for minimal coverage to preserve capital. The general counsel demands maximum protection. The treasurer splits the difference. Meanwhile, the actual challenge—whatever its true size—remains unaddressed,” says Rider.
on risk magnitude, every subsequent conversation becomes an exercise in frustration. The chief financial officer pushes for minimal coverage to preserve capital. The general counsel demands maximum protection. The treasurer splits the difference. Meanwhile, the actual challenge—whatever its true size—remains unaddressed,” says Rider. Advanced analytics platforms, such as those provided by Aon, allow organizations to simulate scenarios such as this using their own data alongside industry benchmarks. By running complex simulations—from cyberattacks and natural disasters to health-related workforce disruptions and benefits cost escalations—companies can assign probabilities and estimate the financial impact of different strategies. This shifts the conversation from abstract challenges to concrete trade-offs. Teams that once operated from separate viewpoints can evaluate options based on shared data, allowing them to move faster from internal debate to aligned action.
Listen to Sean Rider on the trends shaping strategic decision-making for business today.
Done correctly, this analysis creates what Rider calls “alignment around the problem”—a shared understanding of risk dimensions that allows executives to evaluate trade-offs objectively. But the real value goes beyond protection. With clear visibility into risk exposure and costs, leaders can pursue growth strategies with greater confidence—thinking strategically and acting tactically—whether entering new markets, pursuing targeted acquisitions, investing in talent, or maintaining operations during uncertainty. The same data that helps companies avoid losses also optimizes volatility suppression, freeing up capacity to invest in growth.
“We recognize that the risk landscape is changing every single day, and we are committed to building tools that help leaders understand and evaluate these dynamics in real time,” says Rider. “Our focus is on helping leaders shift from a defensive, reactive mindset to a proactive, offense-minded approach—one that balances protection and progress, converting our clients from buyers of insurance to sellers of risk.”
Whether in sport or business, intelligent risk analysis can unlock tremendous opportunities—but those openings only matter if there are people ready to seize them. That’s why caddies don’t just read the greens and calculate yardages. They also scrutinize the player, noticing when they’re losing focus, when fatigue is affecting judgment, and when confidence needs rebuilding. The same focus is required in the boardroom, with success depending as much on workforce readiness as threat assessment.
The human element: Readiness wins under pressure
Source: 2025 Aon Employee Sentiment Study
of employees are either moving, might, or will seek new employment in the next 12 months.
60%
Workforce considerations have traditionally existed in a separate lane from enterprise risk modeling, creating potentially damaging blind spots. This disconnect is clear in the way many companies handle their HR data. “Clients today have about 37 different data points that they use to manage their workforces,” says Melton. Each system, from retirement planning to health benefits to performance management, operates in isolation. This fragmentation means companies can’t see how workforce vulnerabilities amplify operational risks, how financial stress leads to increased errors, or how health issues impact productivity and decision-making. Too often, major operational failures trace back to warning signs that were hiding in plain sight across dozens of disconnected HR systems.
When workforce data is connected and analyzed holistically, it emboldens leaders to act, not react, with targeted strategies.”
Doug Melton
Global Leader of Client Analytics for Human Capital, Aon
“
The most forward-thinking organizations are beginning to address these visibility gaps. Aon’s Human Capital Analytics platform integrates data across disparate systems, creating a unified view that can highlight hidden vulnerabilities. By drawing insights from compensation data, benefits usage, performance reviews, absence patterns, and employee feedback, leaders can utilize predictive models that traditional HR metrics miss. They can help forecast which teams are at risk of turnover, identify where skills gaps will emerge as technology evolves, and predict how workforce changes might impact operational resilience.
Listen to Doug Melton on why engaging a changing workforce requires data and innovation.
These patterns only become visible when workforce data is pulled out of its traditional silos. As Melton says, “When workforce data is connected and analyzed holistically, it emboldens leaders to act, not react, with targeted strategies.”
Combining operational, financial, and workforce insights can be key to resilient leadership. In an environment with increasingly dynamic and multidimensional forces at play, advantage comes not just from having more data but from seeing the whole picture and acting with clarity. The same principle will play out on a different stage at the Ryder Cup. When the world’s best golfers go head-to-head, victory will go to the teams that combine course knowledge with player insight and external awareness with internal preparation. Because in golf, as in business, that kind of integrated intelligence—seeing both the hazards ahead and elevating your capacity to navigate them—remains the ultimate competitive edge.
Translating insight into performance
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Ask most golf professionals what separates a good caddie from a great one, and they’ll point to pattern recognition. The ability to recall how a similar putt broke three years ago, to sense when afternoon winds shift direction, to know instinctively when a player needs encouragement versus hard truth. Modern risks demand similar knowledge and foresight. “One of the biggest challenges leaders face today is balancing urgent short-term decisions with thoughtful long-term strategy,” says Doug Melton, leader of client analytics for human capital at Aon. A talent retention crisis today could, for example, undermine an AI transformation strategy tomorrow, or a supply chain decision made to cut costs might amplify climate vulnerability. The patterns intersect and compound.
“We recognize that the risk landscape is changing every single day, and we are committed to building tools that help leaders understand and evaluate these dynamics in real time,” says Rider. “Our focus is on helping leaders shift from a defensive, reactive mindset to a proactive, offense-minded approach—one that balances protection and progress, converting our clients from buyers of insurance to sellers of risk.”
With risk becoming more complex and challenges arising faster than ever, it’s no wonder leaders can often feel as though they are facing critical decisions alone. C-suite executives shoulder huge pressure, managing a web of supply chain, climate, technology, and workforce issues in a rapidly changing business environment. It’s a setup that mirrors the complex dynamic of professional golf. There’s a perception that the sport is a solitary activity—a lone player competing against the course. But elite golf, particularly during anticipated events such as the Ryder Cup, demonstrates a more fundamental truth about managing difficult decisions under strain. Success hinges on the right partnerships—those that bring pattern recognition, grounded insight, and shared accountability. While the players command the spotlight, their ability to navigate tricky conditions depends on the people carrying the bags, reading the wind, calculating the distances, and seeing angles their partners cannot. “Like a caddie, the right advisor provides clarity under pressure,” says Sean Rider, head of advanced risk analytics in North America for Aon, the global professional services firm and long-standing partner of the Ryder Cup. “Organizations are increasingly turning to us to help them navigate complexity, identify better outcomes, and access new forms of capital.”
