This theme paper raises a series of questions for participants to consider ahead of the Dubai Global Convention 2018 and 28th World Congress on Leadership for Business Excellence and Innovation, the focus of which this year is on transformative leadership for fostering creativity, innovation and business excellence. Questions are posed in the various areas that are on the convention and congress agenda. The meaning of excellence is explored and the relevance of both excellence and innovation from different perspectives and in relation to aspirations, possibilities, situation, context, costs and implications is discussed, Areas of questioning covered include boards and business excellence, boards and innovation, the questioning and justification of innovation, the selection of innovation projects, ensuring relevance, staying ahead of the competition, leadership for uncertain times, visionary leadership, disruptive technologies, partnering with technology, boards as enablers or constraints, productivity and performance tools, stimulating creativity and establishing creative environments, recovering optimism and contextual, productivity, human capital, governance, stakeholder, sustainability, social responsibility and organisational considerations
