The Council on Competitiveness was founded in 1986 during a period of great anxiety about American competitiveness. The United States was losing market shares to international competitors, facing stagnant productivity growth, and suffering from high unemployment and inflation. Two dozen industry, university and labor leaders came together to elevate competitiveness as a national priority and to tackle those economic challenges.

The Council’s mission is just as relevant today as it was 22 years ago. We are now in a new era that will be shaped by turbulence, transition and transformation. Seismic shifts are dramatically altering the world’s competitive landscape and the ecosystems that drive growth and prosperity.

As the Council on Competitiveness prepares to close out another great year, we are delighted to share with you the success and progress we experienced in 2007. We saw tremendous validation of our past work and launched new initiatives aimed at securing America’s competitiveness in an increasingly globalized economy.

Five for the Future lays out what the Council considers to be the critical components of America’s competitiveness agenda for success in an increasingly global economy.

While U.S. entrepreneurial performance continues to lead the world by almost any measure, this analysis demonstrates that other nations are catching up to the United States in a variety of ways – and highlights that the U.S. environment for entrepreneurial activity faces its own challenges and opportunities in the 21st century.