The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 2 plus 8 letter word HEADS OF INDUSTRY
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
H
E
A
D
S
O
F
I
N
D
U
S
T
R
Y
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "they are /our business leaders" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case they are /our business leaders = heads of industry.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.