Measuring the gap between how fast industries are changing and how effectively companies are responding. A score of 50 is even. Updated monthly.
Creator of the Hyder Index and the Strategic Urgency framework.
Most industry reporting tells you what changed. The Hyder Index asks a different question: did companies respond in proportion to the change?
Shama Hyder created the Hyder Index after watching the same pattern repeat across major market shifts. Leaders often see the signal. The harder problem is deciding what it means and moving while the window for advantage is still open.
the Index turns that problem into a monthly public measure of the Change-Response Gap.
Companies rarely lack information. The failure usually happens between seeing a signal and acting on it.
Some organizations wait for certainty and respond after the market has already moved. Others react to every headline and spend resources on noise. Both create the same problem: a widening gap between the pace of change and the quality of the company's response.
The Hyder Index makes that gap visible. It compares six observable signals of change with five observable indicators of company response. It relies on public evidence rather than executive self-assessment.
The goal is not to punish industries with high scores. A high score is a warning that decision risk is rising. It may reveal strategic openings for specific companies, but only after leaders determine whether the change fits their customers, capabilities and timing.
Strategic Urgency is the discipline of choosing the right target and acting while the response can still create an advantage.
It is not speed for its own sake. A fast reaction to the wrong signal is still the wrong move.
The Six Signals identify where to look: Customers, Talent, Money, Incentives, Culture and Disruption. The Hyder Index measures what happens next: whether company action is keeping pace with what those signals demand.
What leaders do with that information still requires judgment. the Index shows where the gap is widening. Strategy determines whether that gap creates an opening for a particular company.
Shama Hyder is the creator of the Hyder Index and the Strategic Urgency framework. She built Zen Media from a $1,500 startup and exited after 17 years of advising companies from high-growth startups to the Fortune 500. Her master's thesis examined Twitter when the platform had fewer than 2,000 users. She later identified the shift to social media marketing and B2B influence before they became established business categories.
She has delivered more than 500 keynotes across 26 countries for organizations including Microsoft, Mastercard, Chase and Verizon. She is a 2026 TIME100 Creator, a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, Professor of Practice at the Link School of Business, a bestselling author and the incoming author of Six Signals from Simon & Schuster.
Her work has been recognized by the White House and the United Nations.