Global leaders in business and policy-making are heading to the Swiss Alps this week for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos. TIME will be there too, hosting events and reporting on all the best panel discussions—and parties. On that note, be on the lookout for special editions of the Leadership Brief in your inbox this week, featuring Davos diaries from Senior Editor Ayesha Javed and Staff Writer Yasmeen Serhan.
This week’s Davos confab is sure to be more sobering than most. Chief executives are worried about economic downturn, inflation, COVID-19, geopolitical instability, supply chain disruptions, and labor shortages as major disruptors to their companies’ operations this year, according to a survey released last week by the Conference Board. These pressing issues, and the increasing urgency of addressing—and reacting to—climate change “are converging to shape a unique, uncertain and turbulent decade to come,” according to the World Economic Forum’s own recent survey of leaders.
TIME Editor Jennifer Duggan delved deeper into some of those concerns, as she recently spoke with CEOs of some of the TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2022—including Rosalind “Roz” Brewer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Ben Minicucci of Alaska Airlines, David Velez of Nubank, David Ko of Calm, Mariana Matus of Biobot Analytics, and Christoph Gebald of Climeworks—about confronting challenges in the year ahead. Read their business predictions for the year ahead below.
Finally, you can now join that esteemed TIME100 Companies community. The application period for the TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2023 has officially begun. Apply here!
-John Simons, Executive editor
(These answers have been condensed and edited for clarity.)
