Monthly Highlights: A leader’s guide to understanding how economies evolve

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Monthly Highlights, April 2026

At 250 years old, the United States is the world’s most competitive economy. America’s history of reinvention holds compelling lessons as the nation confronts a future of immense, if uncertain, opportunity. In our featured story, Olivia White, Eric Kutcher, Kweilin Ellingrud, Shubham Singhal, Scott Blackburn, Arvind Govindarajan, Aly Spencer, and coauthors explore what it will take to sustain America’s competitive edge—and help shape the country’s next economic chapter.

Other highlights include the following topics:

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sovereign AI as a lever for national competitiveness and resilience

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the mindsets and practices that strengthen leadership effectiveness

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leading with both head and heart

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six business models that offer powerful lessons for leaders seeking growth and reinvention

Editor’s choice

A cutout silhouette of the United States filled with a collage of photographs representing American technological innovations spanning 250 years. Inside the map are images of inventions and advancements such as vintage cars and televisions, farm equipment, computer chips, servers, DNA strands, medical scanners, and digital technology, symbolizing America’s technological progress and competitive edge.

At 250, sustaining America’s competitive edge

America’s history of reinvention holds compelling lessons as the nation confronts a future of immense if uncertain opportunity

Read the full report

THIS MONTH’s HIGHLIGHTS

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Sovereign AI: Building ecosystems for strategic resilience and impact

Sovereign AI is achievable only through an ecosystem effort that connects energy, compute, data, models, platforms, and applications across multiple actors.
Understand sovereign AI

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Staying in the game: How women CEOs build leadership that endures

What distinguishes those who achieve sustained excellence in the CEO job? In-depth conversations with leaders reveal five common principles they rely on to guide their actions.
Apply leadership principles daily

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Courageous conversations: How to lead with heart

CEOs know that courage is crucial to guiding organizations through uncertainty. Every conversation is an opportunity for clarity.
Lead courageously

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A taste of what’s next: Perspectives on the future of restaurants

Automated kitchens, AI-powered hyperpersonalization, and “unbundled” formats are accelerating restaurant reinvention.
What’s next on the menu

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Six breakthrough business models reshaping global growth

Six business models piloted in Asia offer lessons for global leaders in any market—and just might be the key to the next wave of sustainable growth.
Explore 6 business model archetypes

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Trust in the age of agents

Agentic AI is here—and that means AI systems are starting to make decisions and take action autonomously. To deliver on AI’s value, leaders need to reckon with new risks.
Make innovation stick

ALSO New

At the threshold of a new era in commodity trading

Building next-horizon AI experiences

Infrastructure: Investing to support global growth

MGI’s new chair Shubham Singhal on AI, productivity, and other key trends ahead

Geopolitics and the geometry of global trade: 2026 update

The next act for robotics: Human–machine collaboration

Empowering everyone: Transforming workforce skills at network scale

Beating the odds: How private equity firms can improve exit prospects

How Campbell’s is investing in leadership—and driving growth and innovation along the way

The race takes off in the next big arenas of competition

The problem with ‘bringing your whole self to work’

Preparing the next generation of confident communicators in an AI-driven economy

OUT NOW

Economic conditions outlook, March 2026

Executives’ optimism about economic conditions globally and at home faded as geopolitical tensions escalated, and concern shifted toward geopolitical instability and energy prices.

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Anyone who pulls the organization in new directions must look inward as well as outward. Read our 2014 classic “Change leader, change thyself” to learn more.
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—Edited by Joyce Yoo, editor, New York

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