Leading Next Generation Companies

The rapidly changing business environment of today requires chief executives to deal with challenges that business school and early career experiences did not prepare them to manage. Strategies to stay globally competitive and return dividends to shareholders consume a majority share of a top executive’s time. But pressures from outside and inside the firm are forcing social and environmental issues onto the CEO’s agenda. Based on our interviews with leading corporate exeßcutives, covered in Chapter 2, a great many CEOs believe that managing the business-society relationship is a vital part of their job. The majority say that they are now attentive to a wide range of stakeholders and a disparate set of issues.