Washington Speakers Bureau represents the best business and economic thought-leaders in the industry. As companies plan their strategies for the new year, we asked WSB's speakers what major trends will be changing the business landscape in 2008.

James Champy - Best-Selling Author and Chairman of Consulting, Perot Systems
"In spite of turmoil in financial markets, business for most companies will continue to be good. But everyone will feel the need to deliver more value to their customers for less. It's the inevitable result of improved productivity and open global markets."

Geoffrey Colvin - Senior Editor at Large, FORTUNE
"Business people need to be thinking hard about how they'll survive and thrive despite the coming slowdown—there are ways. The election will be extremely important, so it's valuable to focus on the many business implications, especially health care and taxes. And 2008 will present great opportunities for wise companies to develop their leaders at all levels."

Rich Karlgaard - Columnist & Publisher, Forbes and Author, Life 2.0 "For 2008, the global economy will grow 4% or more. The U.S. economy, which began slowing in the last quarter of 2007, will avoid recession. Expect tepid growth of 1% to 2% during the first half of 2008, then acceleration beginning mid-year. U.S. stocks will outperform expectations and grow by 20% or more during 2008. The U.S. presidential election in November will be hard fought and close. The result could lead to the most profound set of economic changes since 1980 or 1932."

Phil Lempert - Consumer Trend Tracker, Author and Food Trends Expert, NBC's Today
"Your future will be controlled by community-based efforts (think YouTube, FaceBook and Second Life), where free technology tools allow consumers to voice their opinions about your products and services—and quickly achieve notoriety and celebrity. A dependence on traditional advertising and media models is the path to failure...to succeed you must understand, join and empower relevant communities in order to manage and mobilize the experiences of others.

"The individual is empowered to create, to make change and to be in control. Will you be prepared?"

John Patrick - Visionary, Author and IBM's Former VP, Internet Technology
"The Internet will continue to experience major changes and growth as it comes out of its infancy. As the mobile web explodes on to the scene, no longer will the Internet just be where your PC is; it will be wherever you are. Social computing is no longer about 11-year old children; it will be grown-ups in the enterprise leveraging relationships to hire or be hired, collaborate on global projects and make deals. The corporate brand will no longer be judged by the logo or traditional image; it will be judged by the effectiveness and ease of use of its website."

Dan Pink - Columnist and Author, A Whole New Mind

Marketplace: "The herky-jerky, super-jittery, maybe-recessionary-maybe-not economy risks obscuring a more important trend: The broader trajectory is toward ever greater material abundance and economic prosperity. That trend—which puts a premium on the aesthetic, emotional, and even spiritual aspects of every offering in the marketplace—isn't going away."

Boomers: "Tick, tick, tick. Every 18 minutes this year, another 100 American Baby Boomers will turn 60. This birthday has become a milestone—not a marker of old age, but the threshold of a new stage. As this endlessly self-actualizing generation lives better and longer, they'll focusing the next chapter of their lives on meaning, purpose, and legacies. Are your products and services tailored for this demographic behemoth? Are your workforce strategies keyed to drawing on this incredible pool of talent? Tick, tick, tick."

Talent: "When the economy gets jittery, many organizations will become far less committed to nurturing and challenging talent. That will be a big mistake. The organizations that weather the coming storm will be those that realize that the fundamental dynamic hasn't changed. Talented people need organizations less than organizations need talented people. Even in a downturn. In fact, *especially* in a downturn.

"Large companies will also be trying to adopt the behaviors of smaller, more innovative, high growth companies. The challenge is to grow while retaining an entrepreneurial spirit."

Thomas A. Stewart - Editor, Harvard Business Review
Trends will include…
1. Continuing focus on globalization, its opportunities and its challenges. For executives, the big theme is ‘navigating in a global environment.’ It's more than India and China; add the Middle East, the tide of petrodollars, the pace of investment by oil-rich nations (both inward in their infrastructure etc., and outbound in as sovereign wealth funds put petroprofits to work), and the emergence of pan-Arabic-speaking consumer markets make this a major focus of investment. (Watch Mexico and Brazil, too.) But it's not just markets or production-it's about talent and developing a truly global mindset; it's about London's increasingly central role in global capital markets and the dollar's continuing weakness; it's about understanding the nuances of global strategy, not just the broad strokes.
2. Slow growth in the US, maybe a recession, credit crunch, home mortgage crisis: How should smart companies respond to more uncertain and probably tougher times? I'm hearing people talk about getting much smarter and better disciplined about leadership and talent management; focusing on strategy execution; and revving up their analytics engines to work harder to spot opportunities.

William Taylor - Founding Editor, Fast Company and Co-Author, Mavericks at Work
"In 2008, companies will be hungrier than ever for breakthrough innovations, which is why leaders will reinvent their approach to innovation itself. The most powerful source of business genius isn’t the brainpower of a CEO or a lone engineer. It's the hidden genius of grassroots innovators inside the organization, the collective genius of talented people outside the organization, and the disruptive genius of ideas that migrate from one field to another. In 2008, the companies with the best ideas will be those that rethink how they generate ideas. And the most creative leaders will be those who recognize that the best ideas come from the most unexpected places."