Strategy considerations for businesses and governments TABLE 2 Strengthen core capabilitiesFor businesses: Strengthen core operations, financial health and long-term value creation. Focus on streamlining cost structures, optimizing workflows, supporting workforce development and improving risk management and strategic responsiveness. For governments: Increase policy predictability and continuity. Strengthen macroeconomic stability and responsiveness to shocks. Cultivate a stable regulatory environment that supports long-term planning, investment and growth. Develop geopolitical muscle and invest in strategic agilityFor businesses: Strengthen geopolitical risk functions and build agile governance and organizational structures that enable real-time decision-making. Balance responsiveness, adaptation and strategic resilience. Invest in cross-industry risk management systems, strengthen operational and financial buffers, and increase supply chain flexibility, efficiency and resilience. For governments: Develop adaptive regulatory frameworks that support business agility, innovation and risk management while providing strategic insulation and safety nets to help navigate geopolitical disruptions. Enable public-private collaboration on geopolitical risk mitigation and response. Improve compliance efficiencyFor businesses: Strengthen compliance capabilities through real-time monitoring and AI-driven analytics. Cultivate a robust compliance culture and integrate it into operational and strategic decision-making. For governments: Reduce regulatory complexity and promote harmonized compliance frameworks. Prioritize smart regulation, invest in real-time compliance monitoring and engage industry and civil society in the design and updating of regulations. Build foresight and anticipatory capacityFor businesses: Develop foresight functions and integrate scenario planning into operational and strategic decision-making. Strengthen data infrastructure and harness big data and real-time and predictive analytics to filter noise and enable iterative and forward-looking strategy design. For governments: Institutionalize the use of foresight tools across policy design and implementation. Anticipate long-term societal, technological and economic risks. Invest in public-sector talent and in data quality and infrastructure to enable timely and informed decision-making. Balance strategic localization and diversificationFor businesses: Focus on supply chain diversification and strategic localization to mitigate disruptions and reduce dependency on individual markets or suppliers. Balance domestic and global reach to strengthen competitiveness and unlock access to diverse markets, talent and investments. For governments: Balance openness and targeted domestic policies. Support cross-border collaboration and invest in regional and domestic innovation ecosystems, infrastructure and talent development to drive domestic growth and support local communities. Balance short- and long-term focusFor businesses: Develop processes to filter noise for strategic signals. Adopt a dual-focus strategy to balance short-term, reactive strategies with long-term objectives. Invest in capabilities for long-term competitiveness – including technology, talent, infrastructure and sourcing strategies. For governments: Design policies that support near-term needs while maintaining progress on long-term economic, societal and environmental challenges. Cultivate public-private investment in infrastructure, education, innovation and technology that generate both short- and long- term societal benefits. Strengthen strategic partnershipsFor businesses: Develop cross-industry and intra-industry partnerships to scale best practices, accelerate innovation and share risks. Collaborate with governments, peers and local communities on shared competitiveness and development initiatives. For governments: Strengthen bilateral and multilateral agreements to maintain cooperation on shared values and challenges and to sustain cross-border flows of goods, services, talent, innovation and knowledge. Develop strategic partnerships with business and civil society to drive public-private collaboration on shared challenges. Global Economic Futures: Competitiveness in 2030 26

Global Economic Futures Competitiveness in 2030 2025