Governance isn’t a drag on competitiveness. It’s the source

The world’s most competitive economies are also its most carefully governed. The same logic is starting to decide which companies win with AI.

[Source Illustration: Adobe Stock]

This month, IMD—one of Europe’s leading business schools, where I serve as an Executive Fellow and North America Program Co-Director—released its 2026 World Competitiveness Ranking. As I pointed out in my keynote at the U.S. launch of the index at the Swiss Embassy in Washington, the results sit awkwardly with the stories that the world’s largest economies tell about their world-leading competitiveness. The truth is, neither the U.S. nor China is a true world leader in this realm—the U.S. sits in 10th place globally while China is 12th.

The most competitive economies in the world are Singapore, Hong Kong, and Switzerland, three nations renowned for their prioritization of governance. IMD’s reading of the data is blunt: competitiveness now turns on institutional credibility—predictable rules, enforceable commitments, the........

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