As the global economy begins to show signs of recovery, attention is shifting to the following long-term trends:

The rise of a multi-polar world. Asglobalization enters a new phrase,economic power is diffused across geographic borders. Recent events have demonstrated the resilience and growing importance of emerging markets- and companies originating in these economies are likewise playing an ever more important role in the global economy.

The maturation of IT. The coming together of cloud service, collatborative computing, mobile communications and other emerging technologies is creating new options for business in all regions. IT's ability to help organizations respond to and reinforce growth in emerging merkets adds weight to the shift toward economic multi-polarity.

A recent survey of more than 400 senior executive from all around the world were asked about how increasing globalizaiton and the maturation of information technology are transforminf business ecosystems, defining new business missions and forging new business models. Eighty seven percent of business leaders told us their companies are as yet insufficiently prepared for the disruptive business environment brought about by the intersection of the multi-polar worlld and developments in IT. How should MNE organizations managed this complexity in order to ensure their high performance in the future?