The NextGen Narrative: Insights from Across America
Introducing The NextGen Narrative: A First-of-Its-Kind Look at Emerging Business Leaders and the Future Economy
Today, we are proud to release The NextGen Narrative, the first comprehensive report capturing the insights, pressures, priorities, and aspirations of emerging business leaders across the country. Built from our multi-city 2025 NextGen Listening Tour, this report reflects more than conversations. It reflects a movement.
Over the past year, our team traveled to Phoenix, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Denver, Minneapolis, and Seattle hosting roundtables, engaging small business owners, speaking with young professionals, and listening closely to the next generation of business leadership. Their experiences, their challenges, and their visions shaped every page of this report.
What We Heard: The Future Is Being Built From the Ground Up
Across cities and industries, emerging leaders described an economy in transition. They are operating at the intersection of rising costs, rapid technological change, shifting workforce expectations, and growing pressure to innovate responsibly. Yet, what stood out above all was their resilience and their desire to lead with purpose.
Three themes rise to the surface:
1. Digital Infrastructure Is Now Economic Infrastructure.
Access to digital tools, broadband, capital systems, and AI-enabled solutions directly shapes opportunities for growth—especially for small and emerging businesses.
2. The Future of Work Is Flexible, Skills-Driven, and Technology-Integrated.
Leaders emphasized the need for adaptable work models, continuous skill-building, and fair transitions into an AI-automated era.
3. Business Leadership & Innovation Require Values-Driven Decision-Making.
Emerging business leaders are calling for responsible governance, ethical innovation, community engagement, and a commitment to inclusive economic development.
These insights don’t just describe what is happening, they reveal what is possible.
Why This Matters
The economy is being remade in real time, and emerging business leaders are not passive observers. They are shaping new models, demanding better systems, and redefining what business leadership looks like.
Their voices must inform policy discussions, corporate strategy, workforce development, and investments in entrepreneurship ecosystems.
The NextGen Narrative captures this moment, and sets the foundation for what comes next.
What’s Inside the Report
The report includes:
- New data and findings from six Listening Tour cities
- Core pressures facing emerging business leaders today
- City-specific insights and national trendlines
- Themes across digital equity, AI & automation, cost pressures, workforce shifts, and leadership expectations
- Recommendations to strengthen the emerging business leader economy
- A forward pathway for research, programming, and partnerships leading into 2026 and beyond
This is more than a report. It is the blueprint guiding our next decade of work.
A Note of Gratitude
To every business owner, entrepreneur, early-career professional, student leader, and partner who contributed: thank you. Your honesty, your lived experiences, and your ideas shaped this work.
And to our NextGen community: this is your story. This is your narrative.
What Comes Next
With the release of The NextGen Narrative, we are launching:
- A deeper research initiative examining regional differences from Appalachia to the West
- Thought leadership, storytelling, and co-authored white papers with partners
- Program expansions across youth entrepreneurship, workforce readiness, and leadership development
This is only the beginning.
Download & Share the Report
Help us elevate the voices of emerging business leaders.
Download The NextGen Narrative, share it with your networks, and join us in shaping a more inclusive, innovative, and forward-looking future economy.
