# How to Handle Disruptive Change - Commoncog
**URL:** https://forum.commoncog.com/t/how-to-handle-disruptive-change-commoncog/3769
**Category:** Blog Comments
**Created:** [September 16, 2026, 11:14am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/how-to-handle-disruptive-change-commoncog/3769 "2026-09-16T11:14:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cedric](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/cedric)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2026, 11:14am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/how-to-handle-disruptive-change-commoncog/3769/1 "2026-09-16T11:14:58Z")
Over the past few weeks, we’ve published a series of cases on dealing with disruptive change. This series of cases was created as a service to Commoncog members, which I announced at the end of [The Sensemaking Series](https://commoncog.com/the-sensemaking-series/). (The Sensemaking Series was a short sequence of three essays on how to make sense of AI, which then broadened into a discussion of how experts sensemake differently from novices. If you haven’t read it, you should; it gives us the grounding to talk about the current series of cases.)
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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at [https://commoncog.com/how-to-handle-disruptive-change/](https://commoncog.com/how-to-handle-disruptive-change/)
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### Author:  [@Erald-David](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/Erald-David)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2026, 4:42am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/how-to-handle-disruptive-change-commoncog/3769/2 "2026-10-01T04:42:26Z")
Cedric, sorry for the noob question here, but is there a case or two where a company without a fortress balance sheet still comes out on top navigating disruptive change?
And, using your frame (which I 100% agree with), the only way these kinds of companies manage to do it is because they quickly reframe the situation they’re in AND successfully execute on it?
Which, uhm, following the 2nd-order consequences: if I’m an investor in one of these companies with a limited balance sheet facing disruptive change, I’d instantly want to measure the capability of the executive bench (do they have cognitive agility? do they know the shape of the game, and how skilled are they across the triad?).
Having executive bench like this should be categorized as having Cornered Resource, I suppose.
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### Author:  [@cedric](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/cedric)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2026, 4:42am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/how-to-handle-disruptive-change-commoncog/3769/3 "2026-10-01T04:42:27Z")
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### Author:  [@cedric](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/cedric)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2026, 5:04am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/how-to-handle-disruptive-change-commoncog/3769/4 "2026-10-01T05:04:45Z")
> [@Erald-David](#):
>
> but is there a case or two where a company without a fortress balance sheet still comes out on top navigating disruptive change?
I’m still looking for one. I assume it _should_ be possible — in the Netflix vs Blockbuster case, Netflix’s balance sheet was solid and didn’t shift much during the worst of the crisis. But let’s pretend that in an alternate universe they had a ton of debt. Would it have mattered to Netflix’s eventual success _before_ Blockbuster self-imploded?
In this made up scenario I suspect that Netflix would have come out on top, despite having a terrible balance sheet.
I should note that I am assuming a lot in this alternative universe. We have to assume that Netflix’s creditors didn’t get up to any shenanigans, and that Netflix’s debt wouldn’t impact Icahn’s actions. Also that no other activists emerged to muddy the waters with Netflix.
So in _theory_ Netflix could get lucky and have Blockbuster implode on them despite having a bad balance sheet. It’s still hard to say, though.
In business, as with most naturalistic domains, the strongest causal factors we should expect to find should take on the form of:
> If X happens, Y may or may not happen. But if X doesn’t happen, Y cannot happen.
To transpose this to the current topic:
> If Company A has a fortress balance sheet, Company A may or may not survive a disruptive change. But if Company A doesn’t have a strong balance sheet, it will not survive a disruptive change.
Clearly the way to challenge this conclusion is to seek out instances of companies that had fragile balance sheets and survived disruptive changes. But I haven’t found any … yet.