Harvard Business Review LogoMarch 13, 2026HBR Staff/Yevhenii Dubinko/Getty ImagesFor much of the 20th century and well into the 21st, corporate strategy rested on stable assumptions about place. Populations would grow, talent would be replenished, and climate risk would be marginal and insurable. Technology diffused gradually, giving organizations time to adapt. Geography mattered, but in familiar ways: New York meant finance. Silicon Valley meant technology. The Midwest meant manufacturing. Growth followed people, and people followed jobs.
The Map of U.S. Prosperity Is Changing. Here’s Where Companies Should Invest.
In today’s era defined by demographic scarcity and environmental volatility, geography is no longer a backdrop for strategy. It directly shapes resilience, cost structure, and long-term value creation. Where an organization locates operations, builds supply chains, recruits talent, and invests capital now determines its ability to withstand shocks as much as its pricing or product mix. What leaders need isn’t another ranking of “best cities,” but a way to see how these systems interact across places over time. A place-based framework to evaluate long-term civic viability, known as The Geography of Prosperity Index, examines five interconnected systems that increasingly determine whether a region can sustain prosperity.
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