In turbulent times, steadiness and stability can be significant virtues. These qualities are evident in the 100 men and women who’ve achieved a spot in HBR’s 2018 ranking of the world’s top-performing CEOs. They face an array of outside forces—savvy competitors, demanding customers, profit-hungry investors, political and economic headwinds. Nonetheless, their companies have shown a remarkable ability to sustain momentum: Seventy of the 100 leaders in last year’s ranking performed well enough to achieve the distinction again this year—including Pablo Isla, of the Spanish fast-retailing giant Inditex, who repeats as the number-one-ranked executive.

A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2018 issue (pp.37–49) of Harvard Business Review.