How do we rebuild confidence in the future - and in our collective ability to shape it? How do we reconnect economic growth with social progress? How do we harness innovation without exacerbating inequality – and navigate political tensions without retreating from cooperation?
These are not abstract questions. They are the practical tests of leadership in an age of disruption. Business sits at the centre of these forces - both exposed to their risks and essential to tackling them.
Our new podcast series, What Next? Leadership Conversations for a Better Future, explores how leaders can respond. It is for those who are deeply concerned about the future of societies and who want to act decisively. It brings together leaders, innovators, and thinkers, challenging assumptions, sharing lessons and driving change.
Two of our early episodes explore leadership from very different vantage points. One, releasing this week, Young, divided and under pressure, captures the growing sentiment among youth who are losing confidence in current institutions and mobilising efforts to bring about positive change. Another, releasing next month, The value of values, asks whether purpose and values still have real value for leaders in a world where business success remains doggedly defined solely by financial returns.
Together, they expose both the loss of trust that fuels the demand for change - and the leadership required to respond to it, linking the urgency and agency of a new generation with the responsibility of boardroom leaders to reshape markets and rebuild confidence in the future. These discussions, along with others we have conducted, identify many sources of hope - and show that powerful pathways for progress remain available for those courageous enough to seize them.
Young, divided and under pressure
When asked what gives them hope, many of today’s leaders talk about future generations. They believe that young people care about society and nature and will be the ones to drive change. This is a comfort to those who sense the system has stalled but aren’t themselves prioritising changing it - it is easier to imagine that a new generation will solve today’s problems.
At the same time, youth anxiety and activism are often criticised as naïve or self-indulgent - dismissed as individual fragility rather than an understandable response to the future they inherit.
As we explore with Clover Hogan and Ravi Naidoo, many young people experience anxiety and anger about rising inequality and ecological breakdown. These emotions are proportionate to the risks they face, grounded in the sense of powerlessness created by institutional inaction.
Many see environmental destruction and social polarisation as deliberate political and economic choices - from institutions that persistently postpone responsibility and action. They see organisations that speak the language of sustainability while preserving the status quo, often overstating progress and avoiding acknowledgement of trade-offs. These dynamics fuel cynicism and disengagement rather than trust.
For business leaders, this is not a ‘youth issue’ but a diagnostic signal of systemic failure - a wake-up call. Institutions that fail to sustain the next generation cannot expect to be sustained by it.
“Sustainable leadership means making space for young people not just to be heard, but to lead - to shape the decisions that define their own future.” - Clover Hogan
Rebuilding meaning and momentum
This loss of confidence among young people mirrors a broader failure of direction across public life. Institutions that once enabled progress now struggle to inspire belief or collective purpose. The surge of investment in AI reveals both the potential and the confusion of this moment – a rush to automate the future, while neglecting the tools already available to secure it. Innovation accelerates, but the collective imagination of how it can serve society has stalled.
A deficit of vision has become one of the most destabilising forces in modern societies. People need to believe that effort leads somewhere better. Yet many institutions are preoccupied with efficiency and productivity - optimising existing systems rather than reimagining them.
What restores belief and unleashes the productive engagement that comes with hope is not grand promises but honest, relevant and purposeful imagination - leadership that acknowledges constraint, speaks openly about trade-offs, and defines progress in ways that are relevant to society. As both Clover and Ravi highlight, people will only build the future if they can imagine themselves in it.
Imagination and creativity will be key - you can’t manage your way out of a crisis of meaning; you have to create your way out. Renewal will also depend on leaders with the courage to dismantle the structures that stifle innovation and slow progress – and to make space for those who will inherit what comes next.
The test of leadership now is where imagination meets influence - and in today’s economy, that influence sits largely with business.
“We need to replace the shareholder value model with an intergenerational value model - an empty chair in the boardroom for the people not yet born.” - Ravi Naidoo
The strategic value of values
Business sits at the intersection of these challenges. The institutions that employ, invest, and innovate hold much of the leverage to turn shared purpose into outcomes. This brings corporate purpose and values into sharper focus, as we explore with Alison Taylor and Karen Wood.
For much of the past decade, purpose and values have been treated as the soft edge of business - reassuring language for stakeholders and talent but often seen as disconnected from performance. Yet in a period defined by a crisis of meaning and rising polarisation, clarity of purpose and guiding values are essential when no easy answers exist. Every major business decision now carries political and social implications. Neutrality is not always the safest position; choosing when and how to engage is core to leadership.
Companies that chase only short-term gain while neglecting the social and environmental systems they depend upon may survive the quarter but erode their own foundation. Erosion of trust, exclusion of younger generations from meaningful work, and the liquidation of nature all weaken the basis for prosperity.
Purpose and values are not only how organisations maintain coherence and trust. They define how business can accelerate renewal: using its influence to accelerate the shift to systems that work. That means mobilising peers and investors to change market incentives, engaging policymakers to unlock barriers to transformation, and deploying innovation and finance where they can drive collective progress. In a world where everything is political, moral reasoning is a practical discipline - deciding where to stand, when to act, and how to build alliances that shift outcomes.
“Purpose becomes powerful when it guides trade-offs, not when it avoids them.” – Karen Wood
When conditions tighten, this is the moment purpose matters most. Values are not a luxury for the good times; they are the foundations that prevent retreat into defensive short-termism. Applied with discipline, they focus innovation and investment on the systemic transitions every sector now needs - turning leadership imagination into measurable progress.
“Values are now an imperative because if you don't have public trust, you will not retain your value. Without values, you do not retain your value.” – Alison Taylor
So, what next?
Rebuilding confidence in the future depends on how leaders act inside their organisations and beyond them. Across the two conversations, a set of practical priorities emerge.
Strengthen moral and strategic clarity. Be explicit about purpose. Define what the organisation stands for and where it will not compromise. Make values a guide to operational decisions. Replace “win-win” slogans with honest discussion of trade-offs. Be a source of truth in an age of disinformation.
Rebuild capacity for action. Simplify governance to enable action not stasis. Remove layers that slow decisions; tie accountability to outcomes.
Invest in creative capability. Value imagination in catalysing action when certainty is impossible. Recognise curiosity, innovation and courage as performance criteria. Reward creativity not just compliance.
Involve the next generation. View youth anxiety as data on system failure, not fragility. Translate concern into agency: create clear roles for contribution, not token consultation.
Engage beyond your own walls. Replace neutrality or defensive lobbying or with collaborative problem-solving. Work with peers and policymakers to reconnect growth to social progress.
These are the habits of credible leadership: morally grounded, agile, creatively confident, and visibly committed to progress.
Other conversations in the series explore how these shifts take shape in practice:
- Technology with purpose. How can we keep pace with rapid innovation while ensuring it serves the public good? What new models of partnership between humans and technology will enable creativity, accountability and shared value? with Thomas Lingard, Dominic Vergine and Vilas Dhar
- Accelerating real transitions. How can we speed up energy and industrial transformation, from Africa’s leap in renewables to breakthroughs in hard-to-abate sectors? with Carlos Lopes, Jasandra Nyker, Katie Fergusson and Faustine Delasalle
- Rewiring finance for impact. How can capital markets be aligned with societal goals, and how can philanthropy play a catalytic role in unlocking systemic change? with Nina Seega, Sarah Kemmitt, Jose Vinals, Leslie Johnston and Peter Bennett
- Rebuilding common ground. How do we enable decision-making that bridges political divides and supports collective progress? with Gillian Tett, Robert Eccles, Mike Kenny and Jacinta Koolmatrie
- Rising economies, new ideas. What can Asia’s state-led industrial drive and Latin America’s citizen-led engagement teach the world about pathways to sustainable change? with Marina Grossi and Sang-Hyup Kim
- Human motivation. What drives people to act for change? From purpose and meaning in leadership and community life to the psychology of choice, persuasion and participation - how can we tap into the forces that shape human behaviour to accelerate transformation? with Rory Sutherland, Michael Liebreich, Sudhanshu Palsule, Gillian Secrett and Richard Springer
