"Based on what they say today, what will future leaders do differently from today's CEOs?"

That's the question to be answered by IBM's large Global Student Study. The full report can be downloaded from the link below. Reports on the study say that the most important difference is that college students foresee a future of dwindling resources with growing demands, and that they understand sustainability to be a global issue.

Only 29% of CEOs think that scarcity of resources will be affect businesses in the future, while 65% of students do. Students also expect far more influence in related areas from the development of emerging economies.

Sadly for senior managers, the student study reveals a big discrepancy between these future leaders' view of the world and that of present CEOs. Indeed, twice as many students as CEOs say that "globalization" and "environmental issues," as they converge, will have a significant impact on organizations of the future. In particular, those students who believe that economic power is shifting from developed to emerging economies are much more likely to expect a major impact of sustainability issues.

These future leaders view sustainability as a globally-interconnected phenomenon. For them, the rapid growth in emerging nations like India and China and continued high consumption in developed countries will soon deplete natural resources like water and energy, creating global resource scarcity. Interestingly, while 65% of students believe that scarcity of resources will significantly impact organizations in coming years, only 29% of current CEOs believe so. In North America, students are three times as likely as CEOs to believe this.

Click this title, Inheriting A Complex World: Future Leaders Envision Sharing the Planet, to visit the original resource.