The Conference Board Review is the quarterly magazine of The Conference Board, the world’s preeminent business membership and research organization. Founded in 1976, TCB Review is a magazine of ideas and opinion that raises tough questions about leading-edge issues at the intersection of business and society.

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Openers

Perhaps in ten years we'll look back on the upheavals of 2008-09 and . . . well, maybe not laugh, exactly, but breathe easier than we’re breathing now. Or we’ll see this as a genuine historical turning point, the moment marking the death of one kind of capitalist economy and the birth of another.

Some are convinced that an inevitable upturn is just around the corner—that housing prices and the Dow will begin a steady climb as soon as American consumers regain their insatiable hunger for cars and gadgets and fashion. Others urge us to prepare for a world not driven by spending on nonessential goods; author and blogger Jim Kunstler argues that “we can’t possibly return to the easy credit and no money down ‘consumer’ economy no matter how many nominal dollars get shoveled into the fiery furnaces of banks too-big-to-fail.”

Regardless of whether things start looking up or plunge further, there’s scarcely an industry that can afford to ignore the prospect of a radically new system on the near-term horizon. Business—buying, selling, borrowing, lending, producing, consuming—may pick up where it left off, albeit with some new corporate names adorning downtown façades. Or it may reset at a much lower level, with citizens voluntarily downscaling and with fear of risk hobbling investors, homebuyers, VCs, and chief innovation officers.

Either way, executives need to look beyond today’s credit crunch and start thinking hard about what their companies will look like in five or ten years.

Several of this issue’s articles lay out paths to do exactly that. Crisis manager Jim Lukaszewski sees “a cataclysmic shift in how America does business,” and in “Radical but Necessary,” he offers a blueprint for refashioning the corporate mindset, moving toward what he dubs “community-directed capitalism.” In “Talent Is Everything,” John Hagel, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison explain in detail how—as well as why—to reshape your entire organization around your people. Susan Webber’s “No Leverage” explains why this crisis is different, and why that matters. And in a Q&A, quality guru Subir Chowdhury explores the American mindset and how it needs to change for business—and the nation as a whole—to restore its winning ways.

It’s a lot to take in—and to take on. Under fire and under the gun, would-be Masters of the Universe may see these daunting challenges as more enervating than exciting, and with that in mind, executive recruiter Jim Citrin offers a vision—and a warning—of life at the top in “So . . . Do You Still Want to Be a CEO?” Even if you’ve already achieved the summit, you’ll want to read Citrin’s essay—if only for perspective on what your counterparts are going through.

I’d also like to welcome new columnists Paul B. Brown and Alison Maitland, both seasoned veterans of business journalism. In “Other Voices, Other Views,” Paul will be analyzing and commenting on the business press, highlighting articles and coverage that you shouldn’t miss and probably did. And in “Workspace,” Alison, writing from England, will tackle some of the knottiest issues facing global business today, under the umbrella of “the world of work and how we can make it better.” I look forward to seeing the ideas they bring forth in the months to come, and I hope you do as well.

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