What Factors are Most Important to Changing Global Business Environment?

Which is more important to globalization, technology or trade? In a recent McKinsey survey of business executives, (registration required) one of the questions was “What single factor contributes most to the accelerating pace of change in the global business environment today?” Of these eight factors, guess which ranked from most important to least important:

• Awareness and activism of consumers
• Ease of obtaining information
• Expanded access to talent and labor pools
• More capable competitors
• Plentiful, cheap, mobile capital
• Products and services innovation
• Rate of technological change
• Reduction in trade barriers