A Leader’s List for 2017

Does Your Supply Chain Risk Management Strategy Hold Water?

Economic Conditions Snapshot, December 2016: McKinsey Global Survey results

In the face of political transitions and concerns over trade, executives expect improvements at home and a stable global economy—with some regional divergences.
Economic Conditions Snapshot, December 2016: McKinsey Global Survey results

The 20 Most Popular MIT Sloan Management Review Articles of 2016

Rethinking the oil and gas organization

Organizational choices made during a time of resource scarcity need reexamination when the cycle turns.
Rethinking the oil and gas organization

Badges & benefits: You're missing the loyalty points

In the digital age, the loyalty game is all about making emotional connections at scale.
Badges & benefits: You're missing the loyalty points

Healthy, wealthy and (maybe) wise: The emerging trillion-dollar market for health and wellness

Consumer demand for things that make people feel better and healthier is already a very big deal—and it is about to get much bigger. Here is how to succeed in this burgeoning market.
Healthy, wealthy and (maybe) wise: The emerging trillion-dollar market for health and wellness

Amazon's Secret Sauce

Fanatical attention to customer needs and smart tech investments underpin e-commerce excellence and customer loyalty.
Amazon's Secret Sauce

Loyalty: is it really working for you?

Just because you have a loyalty program doesn’t mean it's generating value.
Loyalty: is it really working for you?

India’s fast-growing apparel market

In India’s high-growth, fast-changing retail clothing market, we see significant new growth opportunities for foreign and domestic players.
India’s fast-growing apparel market

Branding in the digital age: You're spending your money in all the wrong places

The internet has upended how consumers engage with brands. For marketers, the old way of doing business is unsustainable.
Branding in the digital age: You're spending your money in all the wrong places

Finding profits and growth in emerging markets

Over the next 10 years, consumer spending in emerging markets is expected to grow three times faster than in developed nations, reaching a total of $6 trillion by 2020. Consumer-goods companies must understand and address these changing patterns—by both geography and category. This report suggests how.
Finding profits and growth in emerging markets

How luxury brands can create a sense of lifestyle

Real luxury lifestyle must be rooted in authenticity. If luxury brands stray too far from their roots, they will be reduced to little more than faded labels. Here is how companies can infuse their luxury brands with a sense of lifestyle—and substance, too.
How luxury brands can create a sense of lifestyle

eBook: Big Data, Analytics, and the Future of Marketing & Sales

The goldmine of data available today represents a turning point for marketing and sales leaders.
eBook: Big Data, Analytics, and the Future of Marketing & Sales

TV or not TV: Making the most of your marketing dollars in Brazil

Relying too heavily on television advertising may mean you're missing out on cost effective brand building opportunities.
TV or not TV: Making the most of your marketing dollars in Brazil

Five facts: How customer analytics boosts corporate performance

A McKinsey survey reveals how—and how much—customer analytics can improve profits and growth.
Five facts: How customer analytics boosts corporate performance

Follow the customer decision journey if you want B2B sales to grow

B2B organizations must focus on the people and moments that matter so that marketing spend turns into real sales.
Follow the customer decision journey if you want B2B sales to grow

B2B business branding

A deeper understanding of branding’s role in decision making is critical if B2B companies want their brands to drive value.
B2B business branding

Word of mouth: Social networking and online sales success in Brazil

Social networking is the number-one online activity among Brazilian iConsumers.
Word of mouth: Social networking and online sales success in Brazil

Invest in technology for innovation, not productivity

Will Forrest and Kara Sprague, McKinsey partners, spoke recently at the Cloud Connect conference about the need for companies to focus on technology investments that innovate business models, not improve IT productivity.
Invest in technology for innovation, not productivity

The new CMO

Jo Coombs, Managing Director at OgilvyOne London, shares her observations about how the CMO is becoming an agent for change and what makes a successful CMO today.
The new CMO

South Korea: Living it up in luxury

South Korea is different.
South Korea: Living it up in luxury

The beauty of Brazil

Direct sales of cosmetics are thriving in the world's most beauty-conscious country. Here's what you need to know.
The beauty of Brazil

What German consumers want tomorrow

Five trends will characterize German consumer behavior in the coming years. Here is how to use this knowledge to find a competitive edge.
What German consumers want tomorrow

The Smart Way to Deal With Messy Data

Cheaper, simpler, better for customers: Outsourcing without trade-offs

Instead of “insourcing” or “reshoring,” a revamped approach to outsourcing can improve customer experience, explains Vodafone Spain’s Carmen López-Suevos Hernández in an interview.
Cheaper, simpler, better for customers: Outsourcing without trade-offs

From hardware to software: How semiconductor companies can lead a successful transformation

Many semiconductor companies struggle when attempting to transition from hardware to software. How can they improve the process?
From hardware to software: How semiconductor companies can lead a successful transformation

Omnichannel, not omnishambles

Providing an omnichannel customer experience requires companies to become more flexible and responsive.
Omnichannel, not omnishambles

The promise of digital finance

Digital technologies, starting with mobile phones, can rapidly fix problems encountered when savings are stored outside the financial system and foster faster, more inclusive growth, write Laura Tyson and Susan Lund in Project Syndicate.
The promise of digital finance

Most industries are nowhere close to realizing the potential of analytics

For all the hype, most industries have still not come close to realizing the full potential of data and analytics, write Nicolaus Henke, Jacques Bughin, and Michael Chui in Harvard Business Review
Most industries are nowhere close to realizing the potential of analytics

Agile compendium

Getting agile right reduces time to market, increases customer satisfaction, and delivers many efficiency improvements. Yet too many companies still get it wrong. This collection brings together some of our recent insights on how companies in all industries can successfully implement an agile approach.
Agile compendium

Nokia’s next chapter

The Finnish giant has exited mobile phones and doubled down on its networking business. Chairman Risto Siilasmaa explains why—and how.
Nokia’s next chapter

Buried treasure: Advanced analytics in process industries

The full power of advanced analytics requires not only acquiring new technology and analytics solutions, but also helping people improve their expertise and adopt new ways of working.
Buried treasure: Advanced analytics in process industries

How We Sell Our Attention

O&G looks to align an expected price rise with today’s realities

Many oil and gas companies are currently spending more than they earn, anticipating higher oil prices. If prices do not continue to recover, 2017 could be a year of reckoning in the industry.
O&G looks to align an expected price rise with today’s realities

McKinsey Quarterly 2016 Number 4: Overview and full issue

This issue of the Quarterly, available here as a PDF download, explores how executives can ensure they’re putting their data to good use, the future of China’s business environment, the art of transforming organizations, and why leadership requires reason and emotion.
McKinsey Quarterly 2016 Number 4: Overview and full issue

Simpler is (sometimes) better: Managing complexity in consumer goods

Here’s how consumer-goods manufacturers can master complexity—and even turn it to their advantage.
Simpler is (sometimes) better: Managing complexity in consumer goods

The hidden toll of workplace incivility

Research shows that hurtful workplace behavior can depress performance, increase employee turnover, and even mar customer relationships.
The hidden toll of workplace incivility

Unlocking the power of data in sales

Analytics plays an increasingly important role in B2B sales—and high-performing sales organizations take it to a new level to differentiate themselves from the also-rans.
Unlocking the power of data in sales

Moneyball for Professors?

What’s stalling progress for women at work?

Corporate America’s gender-diversity programs are falling short. Companies need to think differently to ignite change.
What’s stalling progress for women at work?

What slowing additions to refining capacity will mean to the industry

Announced refining capacity additions remain high relative to recent history, but will be lower than previously forecast. Conversion investments continue to exceed distillation and will increase complexity in the refining industry with potential opportunities for refiners, traders, suppliers, shippers, and the EPC industry.
What slowing additions to refining capacity will mean to the industry

Here’s how to get the US economy to grow 3.5 percent or more

The new administration can make a fresh start.
Here’s how to get the US economy to grow 3.5 percent or more

Sustainability Reporting: One Size Fits Nobody

How to Be a Strategic Leader

Strategy is something leaders are doing every time they make a decision, and what’s important is that they do it consciously. In this short video featuring Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Jesper Sørenson, strategy is presented as an ongoing, iterative process that leaders are engaging in all the time. “We’d do better to demystify strategy,” Sørenson comments.

Learning to build a strategic organization involves not just turning a plan into coherent action, but paying attention to organizational culture. A strategic leader knows how to translate an action plan into a “sensible way of thinking about the world” that a group can align with. That in turn helps build a community that is willing and able to work from a shared sense of purpose.

Sørenson, who specializes in the dynamics of strategic change and its implications for individuals and their careers, believes everyone has the potential to be a good leader — especially if they are willing to assess their own strengths and weaknesses and learn from others.

How to Be a Strategic Leader

What Executives Get Wrong About Cybersecurity

Are today’s CFOs ready for tomorrow’s demands on finance?

Survey results show that as their role expands to include ever more nonfinancial demands, CFOs know they must build new skills to lead.
Are today’s CFOs ready for tomorrow’s demands on finance?

Sustainability Lessons From the Front Lines

The Next Wave of Business Models in Asia

From the Archives: Managing in a Time of Uncertainty

The age of analytics: Competing in a data-driven world

Big data’s potential just keeps growing. Taking full advantage means companies must incorporate analytics into their strategic vision and use it to make better, faster decisions.
The age of analytics: Competing in a data-driven world

Video meets the Internet of Things

Video-analytics technology is transforming the Internet of Things and creating new opportunities. Are companies prepared to capture growth?
Video meets the Internet of Things

How Blockchain Will Change Organizations

Being patient-centric in a digitizing world

A Danish pharma company’s strong customer focus and determined digital drive have important lessons for other businesses.
Being patient-centric in a digitizing world

Unleashing the power of entrepreneurship in science

A partner of venture-capital firm Atlas Venture, Bruce Booth, explains how investment assists pharmaceutical innovation.
Unleashing the power of entrepreneurship in science

The next acronym you need to know about: RPA (robotic process automation)

RPA is a promising new development in business automation that offers a potential ROI of 30—200 percent—in the first year. Employees may like it too.
The next acronym you need to know about: RPA (robotic process automation)

Your Digital Talent Needs May Not Be What You Think They Are

Using Analytics and AI, Subscription E-Commerce Has Personalized Marketing All Boxed Up

Productivity: The route to Brexit success

The United Kingdom’s post-Brexit future is uncertain. But one thing is clear: boosting economic growth will depend heavily on addressing long-standing productivity challenges.
Productivity: The route to Brexit success

Rewiring Citi for the digital age

Citigroup’s Head of Operations and Technology describes the bank’s efforts to accelerate its digital transition, as well as the importance of having the right talent and agility to pull it off.
Rewiring Citi for the digital age

Oil-field services sector gears up for a recovery … but is not there yet

Stabilizing oil prices stimulated activity in some areas, which fed through to the OFSE sector, helping support the market. Emerging consensus amongst OPEC countries is likely to position the market for recovery; however, execution remains a challenge.
Oil-field services sector gears up for a recovery … but is not there yet

Commoditization in chemicals: Time for a marketing and sales response

Most chemical companies are grappling with increasing commoditization. Rethinking the commercial operating model can help protect margins.
Commoditization in chemicals: Time for a marketing and sales response

Mastering the Market Intelligence Challenge

Why Your Company Needs Data Translators

Engaging With Startups in Emerging Markets

Organizing for New Technologies

Warding Off the Threat of Disruption

Using agile to accelerate your data transformation

Data-management issues can undermine companies’ ability to create value from analytics. Some businesses are using agile principles to make sure data are available when and where they are needed.
Using agile to accelerate your data transformation

Technology, jobs, and the future of work

Automation, digital platforms, and other innovations are changing the fundamental nature of work. Understanding these shifts can help policy makers, business leaders, and workers move forward.
Technology, jobs, and the future of work

The state of fashion

After a tough 2016, growth in the $2.4 trillion industry may accelerate next year, according to the first joint report from McKinsey and the Business of Fashion.
The state of fashion

The next act in healthcare private equity

Corporate divestitures can help private investors keep the good times rolling.
The next act in healthcare private equity

Is Your Company Ready for HR Analytics?

A road map for integrating Europe’s refugees

A surge of refugees and asylum seekers has strained the continent. Managing the asylum procedure and integrating those refugees well could not only mitigate risks but also benefit the economy.
A road map for integrating Europe’s refugees

The beginning of system dynamics

Modeling afforded a number of insights about why high-technology companies fail. It is much harder to change decision-making procedures than we realized when system dynamics started. Whether in school or management education, the focus will be on “generic structures.”
The beginning of system dynamics

Global migration’s impact and opportunity

Migration has become a flashpoint for debate in many countries. But McKinsey Global Institute research finds that it generates significant economic benefits—and more effective integration of immigrants could increase those benefits.
Global migration’s impact and opportunity

The board perspective

The board perspective

Rethinking work in the digital age

Digitization and automation are upending core assumptions about jobs and employees. Here’s a framework for thinking about the new world taking shape.
Rethinking work in the digital age