The 2024 elections around the globe are behind us, and the lines are more clearly drawn on many business-relevant social and economic issues. These challenges have not abated, but business leaders, armed with lessons learned over many years of change, are strong, clear eyed and motivated as they look forward to 2025.
Each year, we enter the holiday season by asking leaders in our networks for their thoughts on the coming year. For this round of predictions, we asked them to share one opportunity and/or one risk that they see for business in the year ahead.
What issues are on their radar?
These leaders see opportunity in talent, innovation and unlikely alliances. They highlight ways to take action, including engagement with investors, employees, and civil society groups. They also see a future of multi-faceted risks, and not always in the arenas one might expect.
As we wrap 2024, here is what this selection of leaders is thinking about sustainability, strategy and talent, and how they are planning for the new year.
Michael Koehler, Leadership Coach, CEO Konu & Harvard University Lecturer
The year ahead calls for leadership beyond authority. True leadership doesn’t always come from the top—it thrives in individuals across organizations. #MeToo, Fridays for Future, and BlackLivesMatter show how grassroots action drives systemic change.
In a political season where sustainability, equity, or climate may take a backseat, businesses face a pivotal moment. The opportunity lies in fostering experiments led by innovators, change agents and intrapreneurs throughout the hierarchy—less visible, but deeply transformative.
To navigate ESG’s adaptive challenges, leading beyond authority includes: (1) Building bridges with unlikely allies, (2) Taking smart risks: provoking learning while managing defensiveness, (3) Anchoring efforts in purpose, not just plans.
Christina Keller, CEO and Chair, Cascade Engineering
The biggest opportunity we have in the United States is our capacity to innovate. The pace of change continues to accelerate. Artificial intelligence and electric vehicles, while early on the adoption curve, will continue to expand, mature and disrupt. There is an opportunity to leverage this momentum and strive for novel ideas, discoveries and technological breakthroughs.
The biggest risk we face is failing to attract and develop the labor force we need for these new industries. The lack of STEM education in schools hampers us from uniformly producing a ready, willing and able workforce of the best and brightest minds to tackle the next novel challenge. And a closed immigration stance will exacerbate our labor shortage.
Katherine Neebe, Chief Sustainability Officer, Duke Energy
The energy transition is at a critical juncture, driven by unprecedented load growth and the need to modernize and replace aging and less efficient infrastructure. Policy changes, technological breakthroughs and rapid innovation are also progressing our 2050 net-zero and interim GHG goals, without sacrificing reliability or affordability.
However, real challenges persist with resiliency top of mind as demonstrated by this year’s historic hurricane season. Addressing this challenge requires robust investment in mitigation and pre-disaster preparedness. Our Climate Resilience and Adaptation study, which outlines our strategy to continue safeguarding the system and communities we serve, paints a picture of the work ahead.
Mark Hays, Director of Sustainable and Impact Investing, Glenmede
The greatest risk for business leaders is if the politicization of ill-defined acronyms such as “ESG” and “DEI” begins to influence how they run their business. The opportunity exists for executives to revisit first principles—to reconsider what they believe will enable them to build a sustainable business advantage and fearlessly execute against it. Corporate leaders empowered to do so ensure innovation across key areas of need—whether to mitigate the effects of the climate transition, improve health outcomes for an aging population, or broaden access to capital.
Sanda Ojiambo, CEO, UN Global Compact
Economic instability, fueled by geopolitical tensions, inflation, disruptions in the supply chain, or other unknowns, will be the biggest risk business leaders face in the year ahead. There will be setbacks, and some companies have retracted their commitments, but more and more companies now see that articulation of a solid business case for sustainability as key to navigating the political and social challenges and managing the noise and pushback.
We are seeing a significant shift in approaches to corporate sustainability; setting ambitious goals opens the door to definitive, measurable actions that drive meaningful change. The UN Global Compact stands ready to help companies on their sustainability journey.
Amina Colter Jones, U.S. Head of Multicultural, Edelman
As we head into the new year, business leaders have an opportunity to recognize diversity as a strength. Embracing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) is good for business. It builds innovative, adaptable, and resilient brands and organizations that truly reflect and serve our diverse world.
With shifts in the employment, legal and communications landscapes, approaching DEIB with care and intention is more important than ever. Checking a box won’t cut it. Real DEIB is about understanding and supporting people—inside and outside the workplace—and when done well and right, it drives growth and trust and has a lasting impact.
Jim Andrew, EVP, Chief Sustainability Officer, PepsiCo
Sustainability is a team sport, which means everyone has to play a role if we’re going to progress towards our ultimate goals.
In 2025 (and beyond) we need more companies, many of which have yet to start their sustainability journeys, to get off the sidelines and to invest in reducing emissions, rolling out renewable electricity and cutting plastic use. We need civil society to actively support companies, both those who need to move faster and those who need to get in the game, by collaborating to advocate for enabling policy and helping to unlock funding barriers. Only together—business, governments and NGOs—can we help drive the system changes required to address these complex global challenges.
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