This edition of The Business of Government magazine provides a glimpse into the many challenges, risks, and opportunities facing today’s government executives. More importantly, it introduces a select group of government leaders who offer their insights, outline successes, and tell us how they, in their own unique way, are making a difference in an era of fiscal austerity. Today’s conditions require government executives to go beyond simply doing more with less—to find smarter ways of doing business, using resources more efficiently, and investing them more wisely.

In this issue of The Business of Government magazine, we survey the intersection where leadership, complex challenges, and the need for transformation meet.

In this issue of The Business of Government magazine, we survey the intersection where leadership, complex challenges, and the need for transformation meet. Whether it’s in the response to the global financial crisis, the national deficit, or the myriad of other pressing issues facing us, uncertainty seems boundless while constraints on resources are very real. It is within this context that we’ve assembled a varied group of government executives and thought leaders who are focusing on these problems and working to mitigate their effects.