As we look ahead to the next five years, it is difficult to predict the future. Our research tells us that leading entrepreneurs are primed for a more difficult environment. But what will remain constant is the billionaire effect – the ability to transform entire industries, to create large numbers of well-paid jobs, and to rally the world to find cures for diseases such as malaria.
The past 30 to 40 years stand out as a time of exceptional innovation in business. The pace of economic change has been faster than at any other time in history. A relatively small number of entrepreneurs have been the agents of that change, applying new technologies and business models.
These entrepreneurs have excelled at creating and steering businesses that outperform. Along the way they have become billionaires. It would seem intuitive that billionaires’ companies should continue to outperform after they have reached this level of wealth. Yet it’s by no means a given: after all, past performance is no guarantee of future success. How much is luck? How much is skill? At what point do entrepreneurs lose their drive?
As we look ahead to the next five years, it is difficult to predict the future. Our research tells us that leading entrepreneurs are primed for a more difficult environment. But what will remain constant is the billionaire effect – the ability to transform entire industries, to create large numbers of well-paid jobs, and to rally the world to find cures for diseases such as malaria.