As 2025 unfolds, the global business landscape is being reshaped by powerful forces that demand strategic foresight and the ability of companies to quickly adapt. The global trade system, regulatory frameworks, geopolitical alliances, security arrangements, and climate policies are all evolving rapidly.

Of the many forces of disruptive change at work, BCG has identified ten that we believe are the most critical for leaders to understand because they will significantly impact their businesses. They fall into three broad categories.

The first is what we call “unbalanced multipolarity”: the shift from a few centers of global power to a larger number of nations of unequal influence that are asserting themselves in the world. The America First vision of the Trump Administration, China’s economic transition, the rise of a confident Global South, and Europe’s “reckoning” are among the developments driving this trend.

A second category of disruptive forces involves the economic battlegrounds that these megatrends are creating. They include tectonic trade shifts, the race for technological supremacy, and the growth of economic nationalism. On top of these, business leaders must negotiate the global shocks that continue to affect business outcomes. These include armed conflicts, climate change that refuses to be ignored, and the polarization of societies.