The Shifting Landscape of Global Challenges in the 21st Century, What This Means for What Businesses Want From Tomorrow’s Leaders, and the Implications for Management Learning

A global mining conglomerate contemplates a major new development in a remote region in Southeast Asia and has to navigate diverse expectations from host governments, project finance partners, local communities and global NGOs. An auto manufacturer hammered by the credit crunch needs to avoid being eclipsed by competitors who invested earlier in environmentally friendly technologies. A major clothing retailer struggles to work out how to improve its purchasing practices to improve labour standards across a complex global supply chain and avoid another front-page exposé of worker abuses by a Central American subcontractor. An airline grapples with the triple dilemma of managing to stay afloat, satisfying consumer demand for more and cheaper air travel and regulatory pressure to include aviation in the European Emissions Trading Scheme. Big pharma wonders how it can innovate to respond to pressure from regulators and investors over access to medicines in developing countries. New start-ups look for the right kind of talent to innovate to create value from business ideas that help us move to a low carbon economy.