Navigating the Year Ahead

The beginning of a new year is a time of reflection and reassessment. For business leaders, it’s a time to consider goals and hopes, challenges and priorities, and the needs of your organization and its people.

What do we want from 2025, as individuals, companies, and society? And what can we do to prepare for what promises to be an unpredictable and complex year?

Spotlight: Our 2025 Wish for Business Leaders: Clear Eyes and Steady Hands

In this new essay, Judy Samuelson reflects on what is ahead for executives and board directors in 2025—and what that means for those who support business leaders, but also challenge them to invest both in the long-term health of the business as well as the society that grants the license to operate:

“As the year begins, we reflect on bets placed in 2024, where we made progress, and the need to think openly about what is possible in this moment. We can’t stand still.”

News Roundup

1. The UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting Should Be a Turning Point for Corporate America (Harvard Business Review: Ranjay Gulati , Alison Beard ) In the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, how can business leaders “step back in this moment and reflect on what role their organizations play in society and what trade-offs they’ll need to make to ensure that their businesses work for everyone, not just investors”? (gift article; also see Americans’ Rage at Insurers Goes Beyond Health Coverage – the Author of ‘Delay, Deny, Defend’ Points to 3 Reforms That Could Help)
2. Costco’s No-Nonsense Defense of DEI (Fast Company: Rob Walker ) “In a cultural back-and-forth that’s been defined largely by posturing, pandering, and threats,” what does it mean that “Costco is trying to stick to business”? (also see McDonald’s Didn’t Roll Back Their DEI Efforts—They Evolved Them)
3. How the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion Can Strengthen Household Well-Being (The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program: Erin Borġ (Thiemann) ) Financial security is a critical component of household well-being and economic resilience. How can a national strategy based on inclusion and collaboration help build financial systems that benefit Americans’ long-term success? 
4. The Future of Jobs Report 2025 ( World Economic Forum ) As job markets are reshaped by tech, demography and the green transition, how can leaders address the skills gap in ways that benefit both workers and business?
5. Meta Is Getting Rid of Fact Checkers. Zuckerberg Acknowledged More Harmful Content Will Appear on the Platforms Now (CNN Business:  Clare Duffy ) What’s behind Meta’s reversal on factchecking, and what are the likely consequences for the company and for its users? (for a deep dive on algorithms and misinformation, see He Got Facebook Hooked on AI. Now He Can’t Fix Its Misinformation Addiction)
6. Responding to the Wildfire Crisis Through Cross-Sector Innovation (SSIR: Christopher Anthony, Genny Biggs (Genevieve B.), Oliver Brandes, et al.) As fires threaten southern California in the latest example of an extreme natural emergency, how do these authors recommend we build a collaborative 21st-century approach to fire?

Also on Our Radar

What else caught our attention this week?

• Our own Nancy McGaw ’s Forget Resolutions. In 2025 I’m Getting an A.
• The 10 New Books to Feed Your Mind in 2025 from Adam Grant .
• Congestion pricing begins in NYC in a high stakes test for the model's U.S. viability
• And as we consider the meaning of lived leadership, Tributes pour in for Jimmy Carter.

One for the Road

Welcome to 2025, and thanks for reading, forwarding and following. We’ll see you next week!

— The Business & Society Navigators

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Founded in 1998, the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program works to align business decisions and investments with the long-term health of society—and the planet.