At a time when environmental capital and, ultimately, humanity’s natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce, the need for companies to make a positive contribution and adapt and innovate has never been more pressing. Crucially, scarcity extends beyond mere supply chain disruptions; it also represents a critical management issue that requires strategic foresight and transformative action.

The findings reveal a clear intergenerational consensus on the urgency of addressing challenges that arise from natural resource scarcity. However, differences emerge across leadership generations regarding the topics of concrete approaches, personal accountability, and willingness to make sacrifices. Although consensus on the urgency of the problem and the need for companies to do more provides a solid foundation for cooperation, differences in implementation strategies highlight potential obstacles to intergenerational cooperation and, in turn, to reaching actionable compromises. Confronting scarcity requires more than mere dialogue; it requires a strategic pivot toward negotiating solutions, setting priorities, and making concessions that pave the way for a truly sustainable future.

The surveys were conducted in February and March 2024. A total of 650 Leaders of Tomorrow participated online, and 250 senior executives were surveyed by phone with screen-sharing to facilitate answering rating questions and overseeing lists of items.

There is strong consensus among generations of leaders about the urgency of natural resource scarcity and the need to act. The shared understanding of overarching goals and the need to challenge the status quo provides a solid foundation for intergenerational collaboration.

However, generational disagreements over the right strategies underscore potential barriers to intergenerational cooperation and agreement on concrete actions to address scarcity. Navigating scarcity requires prioritization. Differences in leaders’ perceptions may impede the search for compromise on the optimal course of action and ultimately prevent action.

The Leaders of Tomorrow are significantly less optimistic that solutions for tackling natural resource scarcity will be found in time to avoid a collapse of global systems. Today’s senior executives should be aware that a significant proportion of young, emerging leaders are genuinely concerned, possibly af – fecting the way in which they communicate and address the topic in cross-generational debates.

A common understanding is good; common action is better: While dialogue is essential to building trust and enabling mutual understanding, it is not sufficient. Leaders need to be aware of both consensus and disagreement, but ultimately, they need to move from dialogue to concrete negotiation in order to reach actionable compromises that will transform business for a sustainable future.

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