The path toward a brighter future is rarely linear or easy to find. Over the past two years, the financial services industry has demonstrated its ability to successfully navigate unprecedented levels of uncertainty. From real estate to insurance to investment management to banking and capital markets, financial services organizations across the globe faced the pandemic with remarkable resilience and adaptivity, helping people, organizations, and governments get back on their feet.

But it’s still an upward climb. Now faced with a confluence of near-term geopolitical and economic challenges—the war in Ukraine, inflation, supply chain disruptions, and the possibility of regional or global recession—2023 also promises to be a year in which more regulation and requirements around transparency become marketplace realities.

How can financial services leaders navigate the path ahead? They can apply the lessons they’ve learned since 2020 to address challenges and find opportunities: leaning in on smart strategy and execution and focusing on talent, technology, risk, regulation, and purpose. While some organizations may choose the cost-cutting route, others will point toward smarter execution, finding ways technology can be deployed to add value and create superior customer experiences. While some firms may respond to ESG requirements defensively, focusing on doing only what’s required, others will step up and lead, finding opportunities to invest in people and the planet.

2023 could be the year the “new normal” fully comes into view. There will be opportunities to help define the future, one in which profits and purpose are inextricably linked. Financial services leaders can be poised and ready to move the industry forward.