For companies that have expanded aggressively by acquisition, the challenge can be greater still. Acquisition-fueled growth often masks underlying weakness in existing operations, and integrating different businesses into a fine-tuned engine is difficult.

One man who has risen to the task is Henri de Castries. In this month's cover story, "AXA Wielder," beginning on page 40, Senior Editor Andrew Capon describes how the 50-year-old executive has generated double-digit earnings growth at France's AXA through the most difficult period in memory for European insurers. The group rose to prominence by making acquisitions in the 1980s and '90s, but in this decade it has prospered by cutting costs, avoiding the worst excesses of the equity boom-and-bust cycle in its investment portfolio and strengthening its network of advisers to sell more financial products to retail customers. More hard work than glamorous deal making, the efforts have nonetheless produced results: AXA's earnings have doubled during de Castries' four-year reign.

Now the CEO, who learned from AXA's legendary chairman, Claude Bébéar, is flexing his muscles in a bid for global leadership in, as he puts it, "financial protection." AXA's purchase of MONY Group earlier this year bolstered the firm's U.S. distribution and underscored its global ambitions. The competition isn't exactly standing still. Zurich Financial Services and Germany's Allianz are growing strongly again under new leadership. But de Castries' formula of ruthless efficiency, innovation and opportunistic deal making puts AXA in a strong position to meet the challenge.

Global leadership is not normally associated with Russian businesses. Yet increasingly that is their aspiration. More than a decade after the collapse of Communism, the oligarchs who took control of Russia's economy are gradually evolving into, or giving way to, managers who more closely fit the Western mold. Starting on page 53, Contributor Craig Mellow profiles several of the biggest investors in our first poll of leading Russian business executives. Even as these corporate chieftains focus on increasing profits and satisfying customer demand, they are looking for new opportunities to expand abroad. As raw inexperience is succeeded by managerial excellence and strategic vision, Russia, and the world, can only benefit.