Making Markets Fit for the Future: The new agenda for leadership and innovation

9 September 2026 – Long-term prosperity, resilience and environmental sustainability depend on markets that can respond to the risks and opportunities ahead. Yet many markets still fail to recognise and reward long-term value.  

In this new report, CISL sets out an agenda for leadership and innovation focused on shaping markets, sectors and places to build more resilient, competitive and sustainable economies.  

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About 

Markets shape where capital flows, which business models succeed and which forms of value are recognised or ignored. They influence how innovation, investment, competition and demand interact to shape economic outcomes. Yet many markets remain organised around assumptions and incentives that fail to reward the outcomes on which long-term prosperity depends.  

Making Markets Fit for the Future sets out a new agenda for leadership and innovation focused on shaping markets, sectors and places to unlock long-term value. It explores how markets evolve, the forces that influence change, and the leadership needed to shape more resilient, competitive and sustainable economies.  

What the report explores 

The report draws on CISL's framework of five dynamic system drivers: 

• Technology 
• Government 
• Finance 
• Citizens 
• Planet 

Together, these forces influence the direction and pace of market change. Understanding how they interact helps leaders identify opportunities, diagnose barriers and determine where collective action can unlock progress.  

The framework is applied to four systems central to economic resilience and prosperity: 

• Built environment 
• Energy 
• Materials and manufacturing 
• Food, land and agriculture 

Each faces different challenges, but all illustrate how better market conditions can unlock long-term value.  

The new leadership agenda 

The report concludes that organisations must increasingly look beyond organisational boundaries to influence the wider conditions that shape market outcomes. 

This is the new leadership agenda: leadership that spans organisational ambition and collective change to unlock long-term value by leading and shaping markets. Organisations that help shape these transitions can unlock new sources of value, strengthen resilience and build competitive advantage while contributing to stronger economies, healthier communities and restored natural systems.  

CISL's role 

For CISL, the report sharpens our focus as a market-shaping institution for a sustainable economy. 

We will draw together our strengths in leadership development, evidence and insight, convening, finance, policy and innovation to help organisations understand, influence and shape the conditions that enable change to happen at scale.