Thinking Beyond "Business As Usual"

6,000 top executives were recently surveyed on what they were doing to go beyond "business as usual" to keep their companies competitive in the 21st century. Since we're in the business of disrupting "business as usual" here at Bolder, we were fascinated by the responses. Click the infographic to enlarge the results:

It was heartening to see that creativity was the #1 leadership quality valued by CEOs.  We were also encouraged that 26% care about sustainability (this contrasts significantly with a recent survey saying most MBAs don't care about social responsibility). Business has definitely made a lot of positive progress in recent years, and we think it will continue.

Overall, though, we felt like something was missing from these responses. Openness still isn't a top priority. We saw a lot of business-speak and inward focus, and little emphasis on collaboration, engagement, and interaction between businesses and customers. Even in our hyperconnected, interdependent world, it seems that companies still have a hard time imagining themselves as part of something larger.

We hope Bolder can change that for the better. We think that openness, collaboration and meaningful dialogue between individuals and customers, and generally doing awesome stuff should be part of "business as usual". That's one of the main reasons we're here (and we're so grateful that you're here with us!).

So help us out: What do you feel is missing from "business as usual"? How would you change it? Please share your brilliant, genius, crazy, far-fetched and fantastic ideas in the comments.