The emerging CEO agenda

This article identifies and articulates the major challenges facing CEOs of large multinational firms. Analysis of recent surveys and interviews highlights eight challenges: 1. Developing growth avenues, 2. Raising productivity, 3. Competing for talent, 4. Managing diverse risks, 5. Tightening corporate governance, 6. Incorporating sustainability, 7. Creating new innovation models, and 8. Building out new infrastructures. This large and broad set of issues involves new twists on known challenges and the emergence of new challenges. These challenges are demanding because they require new types of non-business expertise, their rules are not yet clear, and they are interdependent. CEOs need to craft an agenda for dealing individually and collectively with these issues.