Imagine driving your car around a race track at a constant 30kph. Anyone can do this. No stress at all. Then, every lap, you increase the speed slightly. On each new lap, the complexity of your world increases. At some point, your ability to process the faster pace and control the car will fail you. This is how the pace of change in business is challenging its leaders. The pace of change is creating a level of complexity that is overtaking their ability to process and make effective decisions.

What’s it like to operate in this sped-up environment? APAC provides a strong picture of the forces that are spreading globally. We interviewed 70 APAC leaders, face-to-face, of big name, highly-successful global companies, across multiple industry sectors. They have combined revenue estimated at over a trillion dollars. There were also a handful of CEOs of global companies, who had moved their HQs to Asia.

We identified three common themes that are consuming leaders operating in this disrupted environment. The complexity they face comes from the fact that all three themes are multi-faceted and are all equally demanding at the same time.

Read on for more of what we learned.