Over the past several decades, many global corporations have battled their way through cycles of economic turbulence and shifting geopolitical landscapes. Yet few executives have faced this constant barrage of crises as persistently or as intensely as Glenn Fogel, the long-serving chief executive officer of Booking Holdings, one of the world’s largest travel conglomerates. While countless organizations have weathered the broad uncertainty of modern commerce, Fogel’s experience stands out for its unrelenting frequency of upheaval. From the early days of the dot‑com collapse and the devastating aftermath of the September 11 attacks, through the 2008 global financial meltdown, health emergencies such as the first SARS outbreak, and natural disasters including volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, the list of disruptions he has had to manage seems almost without end. More recently, the COVID‑19 pandemic, escalating international tariff disputes, and the eruption of regional conflicts have continued to test both his leadership and the resilience of the company. As Fogel succinctly told Business Insider, every single day brings new challenges: something unexpected is always arriving, demanding swift yet thoughtful responses. His oft‑quoted remark—“Every day something’s coming down the pipe”—captures the relentless pace and unpredictability inherent in steering a multinational enterprise through an age defined by volatility.

Central to surviving and succeeding amid such instability is a strategy of preparation. Fogel emphasizes that crisis management does not begin only when disaster strikes; it begins much earlier, through meticulous contingency planning and scenario analysis. As a telling example, he described how, when geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine began to escalate, Booking Holdings—already operating in those regions—immediately initiated planning for alternative courses of action, carefully creating “just‑in‑case” frameworks to safeguard operations and personnel. That foresight proved indispensable when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was launched mere hours after the firm’s February 2022 earnings call. As the conflict unfolded, the company shifted rapidly into response mode, channeling resources to support employees living in affected areas, adjusting commercial strategies, and ensuring compliance with newly imposed international sanctions. Ultimately, these developments culminated in Booking Holdings’ decision, announced in March 2022, to suspend travel‑related services across Russia and Belarus. In making this move, the organization demonstrated both moral and operational clarity—prioritizing safety, regulatory adherence, and corporate integrity over short‑term profit considerations.

Having spent more than twenty‑five years with the company, Fogel has accumulated deep institutional memory and a refined intuition for handling crises of all magnitudes. His personal approach to leadership under pressure reveals a combination of decisiveness, structure, and composure. When a crisis breaks out, his first instinct is to reach out to a small circle of top executives—the general counsel, chief financial officer, and chief human resources officer—forming a rapid‑response nucleus. Together, this team evaluates the evolving situation, identifies the areas of the business most directly affected, and sets priorities for communication and mitigation. Given the truly global footprint of Booking Holdings, a single event can ripple through the organization in vastly different ways depending on geography: what impacts European operations may not mirror the effects seen in Asia or the Americas. Recognizing these distinctions allows Fogel to calibrate his responses with precision, ensuring that local realities are balanced with corporate consistency.

Fogel notes that the company’s long history of enduring adversity has forged resilience into its culture. Each previous episode—no matter how daunting—has become a point of reference, a training ground for the next. For the CEO, maintaining perspective is crucial. He often reminds himself, and his team, that even the most disruptive crisis has a conclusion; there is always an endpoint, even if the timeline remains uncertain. During the height of the COVID‑19 pandemic, for example, he acknowledged that he could not possibly predict when a viable vaccine would emerge, yet he held unwavering confidence that science and global cooperation would eventually deliver one. This conviction, grounded in past experience, became both a psychological anchor and a source of organizational stability. As he puts it with characteristic pragmatism, enduring multiple disruptions over the years equips a leader with perspective and stamina—it is, as he wryly observed, “not the first rodeo.”

Beyond tactical decision‑making, Fogel recognizes that effective leadership also depends on sustaining one’s own mental and physical well‑being. To manage the cumulative stress of continuous high‑stakes decision‑making, he turns to meditation, a discipline he strives to practice daily, using it as a means to restore focus, regulate emotion, and maintain clarity amid chaos. Complementing his mindfulness routine is his steadfast commitment to exercise, which he describes as non‑negotiable. Nearly every morning before beginning work, he engages in a regimen of light weight training throughout the year and swimming during the warmer months. This consistency, he explains, fortifies both body and mind, enabling him to confront daily uncertainties with composure and endurance. Even when business obligations keep him almost perpetually on the move—more often abroad than at home—Fogel ensures that fitness remains an immovable part of his schedule. Hotel gyms become his temporary sanctuaries, where he often multitasks, reading and responding to emails during lower‑intensity workout intervals.

Taken together, Fogel’s strategies reveal a philosophy of leadership rooted in preparedness, perspective, and personal discipline. His career demonstrates that crises, while inevitable, need not be debilitating. Instead, through forward planning, decisive coordination, and steadfast self‑care, a leader can transform unpredictable challenges into opportunities for growth, ensuring that both the organization and its people emerge stronger each time.

Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/ceo-booking-holdings-shares-how-handles-a-crisis-2025-12