Monitor Group, one of the world’s leading advisory and consulting firms, and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, a leading international research center, based in Milan, Italy, released, “Weathering the Storm: Sovereign Wealth Funds in the Global Economic Crisis of 2008,” a new annual report analyzing the effects of the global economic crisis on the behaviors and financial transactions of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs).

A new report from Monitor Group, an in-depth profile of 13 sovereign wealth funds based in the Middle East and North Africa, finds the variation in performance is greater than expected "and indicates that the more mature funds have better risk management systems and organizational architecture better attuned to rapidly changing circumstances," said Monitor's CEO, Mark B. Fuller, who is speaking about the report at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East. 

Why do organizations get blindsided by market transformations that could have been anticipated?  This article from Strategy & Leadership guides you through a systematic process for incorporating plausible but challenging future scenarios into your organization’s learning processes, to help mitigate risk and decrease the likelihood of being unprepared for discontinuities.

“Paths to Prosperity; Promoting Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century,” a new Monitor Group study, interviewed entrepreneurs in 22 countries to determine attitudes and critical policies required for entrepreneurship to thrive in different regions around the world, including the importance of a society's fostering of entrepreneurial skills and tax policies that encourage R&D.

In the third quarter of 2008, as the global financial crisis continued to worsen, Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) sought to limit their exposure to the riskiness of OECD markets while putting more capital to work in their domestic economies, according to research by Monitor Group. This report is part of a quarterly series Monitor is producing to track the behavior of SWFs.

These are unprecedented times for corporate executives—incredible volatility in the markets, sinking consumer confidence, a new financial crisis every week.  As a result, executives need to act quickly to tackle short term problems while setting the stage for long term growth. While we’ve dealt with recession before, the level of volatility and structural change posed by this crisis calls for a radically different playbook of options for achieving growth. 

In our view, there are certain, key levers companies can pull to find real growth and address the uncertainty.  The topics covered here can help shape your leadership agenda.

Nick Turner, a partner at Monitor Group and co-president of the Global Business Network, explains how scenario planning is a key to readiness in uncertain times in an article in CEO Journal.

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are shifting investments away from the United States and Europe and into the Middle East and Asian economies, according to research released today by Monitor Group, one of the world’s leading advisory and consulting firms.

In this short presentation Monitor Partner Victoria Levy discusses a critical and timely issue facing most companies…how to get more out of marketing spend during recessionary times.

Today’s complex business environment presents an opportunity for executive development systems to create sustained strategic advantage for a company.  There is an undeniable edge for an organization that is able to routinely produce leaders who are equipped to take on the unique contingencies of their business. Making this happen, however, requires a shift in how companies think about developing their executives and how they manage the learning side of their business.