M&A 2016: Deal makers catch their breath

In a year marked by smaller acquisitions and higher prices, cash deals came out on top.
M&A 2016: Deal makers catch their breath

Resolution planning: How banks can tackle legal-entity rationalization in 2017

Here’s a primer on how banks can plot this year’s work.
Resolution planning: How banks can tackle legal-entity rationalization in 2017

Economic Conditions Snapshot, March 2017: McKinsey Global Survey results

Respondents report renewed optimism on the economy. But political and trade-related risks continue to loom.
Economic Conditions Snapshot, March 2017: McKinsey Global Survey results

New insights into the slowdown in US productivity growth

Can the productivity puzzle be solved? Fresh analysis examines the issue and highlights opportunities for companies and policy makers to act on.
New insights into the slowdown in US productivity growth

Industry 4.0 demystified—lean’s next level

Amid digital disruption, five principles can help companies find tangible value in Industry 4.0 solutions.
Industry 4.0 demystified—lean’s next level

Reinventing the workplace for greater gender diversity

Three efforts could kick-start progress to get more women in leadership positions.
Reinventing the workplace for greater gender diversity

Digital Europe: Realizing the continent’s potential

Europe is operating below its digital potential. Accelerating digitization could add trillions of euros to economic growth in less than a decade.
Digital Europe: Realizing the continent’s potential

Playing offense: What it takes to drive growth

In this interview, McKinsey senior partner Liz Hilton Segel speaks with Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit about what organic growth means and how a business drives it. The following is an edited version of their conversation.
Playing offense: What it takes to drive growth

The finer points of linking resource allocation to value creation

According to new survey results, exploring the more subjective side of investment decision making yields five elements that correlate closely with outperformance.
The finer points of linking resource allocation to value creation

Invest, Create, Perform: Mastering the three dimensions of growth in the digital age

Growth winners think about growth in new ways and pursue it across multiple dimensions.
Invest, Create, Perform: Mastering the three dimensions of growth in the digital age

The End of Focus: A New Wave of Manufacturers Will Choose Scope Over Scale

CPG manufacturers need a comprehensive strategy for digitization

Increasingly competitive CPG markets are making consumer-centered innovation—and the successful adoption of digital technologies—essential as the CPG landscape evolves through 2030.
CPG manufacturers need a comprehensive strategy for digitization

Facing up to digital disruption: Reinventing the core with bold business strategy

A solid, industry-specific digital strategy and cutting-edge execution can set the stage for increased revenue growth and a better return on investment.
Facing up to digital disruption: Reinventing the core with bold business strategy

Air freight 2025: Agility, speed, and partnerships

Companies in the sector must become as agile as possible, maintain air freight’s speed advantage, and deepen their partnerships.
Air freight 2025: Agility, speed, and partnerships

Questions and Answers About Analytics as a Source of Business Innovation

Stopping the insanity: Three ways to improve contractor-owner relationships on capital projects

Major capital projects are habitually beset by overruns and delays, but three solutions offer a path out of entrenched dysfunction and to increased profitability.
Stopping the insanity: Three ways to improve contractor-owner relationships on capital projects

How retailers can drive profitable growth through dynamic pricing

The secret is in customization: dynamic-pricing solutions must be tailored to a retailer’s business context, objectives, and ways of working.
How retailers can drive profitable growth through dynamic pricing

Seeing Beyond the Blockchain Hype

When sustainability becomes a factor in valuation

Sustainability efforts are material to investors only to the extent they affect cash flows. What matters depends on the industry.
When sustainability becomes a factor in valuation

The Big Squeeze: How Compression Threatens Old Industries

Will AI Create as Many Jobs as It Eliminates?

On the Road to AI, Don’t Ask “Are We There Yet?”

How Digital Media Will Bring Out Our Best Selves in the Workplace

Saving Money Through Structured Problem-Solving

Don’t Check Your Facts at the Door (We’ll Check Them for You)

On March 21 and 22, we are opening the MIT SMR website to one and all, offering free and unlimited access to our rich offering of management insight and advice.

Why?

Because we feel this a particularly good time for a reminder of the value of facts. Actual facts.

In the world of business advice, we believe that the only ideas worth sharing are ideas based on evidence. Our mission is to improve the practice of business by identifying the most important new ideas in management, vetting them for rigor, shaping them into practical wisdom for executives, and delivering them in ways that are convenient and, we hope, enjoyable to consume.

For two days, we aim to demonstrate the worth of our mission as broadly as possible.

We believe MIT SMR can play a central role in helping you navigate the challenges of your world. I invite you to dig in and test our claims. We will let the evidence speak for itself.

Why not begin here?

Don’t Check Your Facts at the Door (We’ll Check Them for You)

The digital reinvention of an Asian bank

The CEO of DBS says it’s not enough to apply digital “lipstick.”
The digital reinvention of an Asian bank

Harnessing the Secret Structure of Innovation

MIT SMR and MIT Press Announce Book Publishing Partnership

Digital revolution: What it means for Indonesian business

The hardest part of a digital transformation is building the right institutional culture.
Digital revolution: What it means for Indonesian business

What’s ahead for industrials?

To stay competitive, companies need to sustain momentum while developing new capabilities, offerings, and operating models.
What’s ahead for industrials?

The Flare and Focus of Successful Futurists

Putting customer experience at the heart of next-generation operating models

The benefits of improved customer experience can be fleeting unless changes to supporting back-end operations are made, as well.
Putting customer experience at the heart of next-generation operating models

Defining “Material” Climate Risks

McKinsey Quarterly 2017 Number 1: Overview and full issue

This issue of the Quarterly, available here as a PDF download, lays out why companies should seize new opportunities in light of digitization, discusses fresh research on consumer decision journeys, and examines firms making strides on board-level gender diversity.
McKinsey Quarterly 2017 Number 1: Overview and full issue

Capturing value from your customer data

Companies can put their information to work by teasing out novel patterns, driving productivity, and creating new solutions.
Capturing value from your customer data

The oil & gas supply chain returns to growth after more than two years

OFSE quarterly revenue edged up for the first time since Q3 2014, helped by an oil price–driven recovery in capex. But most activity is in the US onshore, with sectors elsewhere still facing slim pickings.
The oil & gas supply chain returns to growth after more than two years

Intelligent process automation: The engine at the core of the next-generation operating model

Full intelligent process automation comprises five key technologies. Here’s how to use them to enhance productivity and efficiency, reduce operational risks, and improve customer experiences.
Intelligent process automation: The engine at the core of the next-generation operating model

Chemicals 2025: Will the industry be dancing to a very different tune?

Chemical companies have been riding high, but the trends that have underpinned that performance are shifting. Companies should reflect carefully on their strengths as they move into this new territory.
Chemicals 2025: Will the industry be dancing to a very different tune?

Meet your new MOM (Marketing Operating Model)

To drive revenue growth in the digital age, new data shows that marketing leaders are upgrading data-collection technology, collaborating closely with IT, and focusing on test-and-learn agility.
Meet your new MOM (Marketing Operating Model)

Innovating the customer experience in national parks

Rick DeLappe, the project manager for Recreation.gov, discusses redesigning the user experience and the Recreation Information Database.
Innovating the customer experience in national parks

Using data to improve customer experience in passport services

The head of operations for the US State Department’s Passport Services Directorate discusses how her team finds creative ways to use sometimes-imperfect customer data to improve the passport-application experience.
Using data to improve customer experience in passport services

The Most Underrated Skill in Management

Building a More Intelligent Enterprise

The Smart Way to Respond to Negative Emotions at Work

Free Webinar March 15: Analytics as a Source of Business Innovation

On Wednesday, March 15, at 1 p.m. EST / 10 a.m. PST, the authors of MIT Sloan Management Review’s new research report, “Analytics as a Source of Business Innovation,” will share the findings and insights from their research with a free webinar and Q&A session. They will discuss what they learned about the changing landscape for companies looking to embed data and analytics into their strategies, processes, and operations.

The research finds that the number of companies reporting a competitive advantage from analytics increased for the first time in four years. Several factors are behind this shift, including wider dispersion of analytics within companies as well as a stronger focus on specialized, innovative applications that have strategic benefits.
Register to watch live or receive the on-demand recording.

In the webinar, the authors will discuss:

• Why companies find success when they organize themselves around their data
• How smart machines augment human skill and create opportunity for innovative thinking
• How companies are approaching the democratization of data while preventing misuse and misinterpretation
• Why data governance is becoming more and more important to analytical innovators

Register to watch live or receive the on-demand recording.

Free Webinar March 15: Analytics as a Source of Business Innovation

How to succeed as a chief digital officer in pharma

The life-sciences industry is embracing digital to unlock innovation. We spoke to ten digital leaders at global pharmaceutical companies to understand how they focus their efforts.
How to succeed as a chief digital officer in pharma

Preserving the downturn’s upside

Plummeting prices forced oil and gas companies get serious about rising production costs. They have. Now the challenge is to preserve those gains.
Preserving the downturn’s upside

Keeping transformations on target

Analysis of high-stakes transformations reveals a few pragmatic lessons that increase the odds of meeting the organization’s objectives.
Keeping transformations on target

Building Asia’s cities of the future

How one Asian developer is using planning and technology to make cities work for people.
Building Asia’s cities of the future

Learning as a strategic necessity: Entering a global property market during a domestic boom

China Vanke executive Zhang Xu describes how his real-estate company has met the challenges of overseas expansion.
Learning as a strategic necessity: Entering a global property market during a domestic boom

Industrialized delivery systems and the future of real estate

Real-estate developers should accept that business as they have known it is changing. By adopting new construction technologies, they can improve delivery and affordability.
Industrialized delivery systems and the future of real estate

Time for insurance companies to face digital reality

Regulation, product complexity, and insurers’ large balance sheets have kept digital attackers from insurers’ gates. That is changing, but in ways incumbents should embrace. They can flourish in the digital age—if they move swiftly and decisively.
Time for insurance companies to face digital reality

Building Lasting Collaborations With Government and NGOs

Why Can’t We Have More Than One Digital Strategy?

In “How to Develop a Great Digital Strategy,” an article published in the winter 2017 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review, authors Jeanne W. Ross, Ina M. Sebastian, and Cynthia M. Beath wrote about the importance of having a digital strategy that helps guide executives as they lead and monitor digital initiatives.

In their article, Ross, who is a principal research scientist at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR); Sebastian, who is a research associate at CISR; and Beath, who is a professor emerita of information systems at the University of Texas at Austin, argued that executives need to make a clear decision: whether to pursue, as they put it, “a customer engagement strategy or a digitized solutions strategy.” They advised that companies need to select one of those two strategies.

But several readers questioned the notion that executives need to choose one focus or the other (as opposed to pursuing multiple digital strategies in tandem). For instance, Kaiser H. Naseem, the Dubai-based head of banking and digital finance advisory services at International Finance Corp., wondered why customer engagement and digitized solutions strategies couldn’t be combined. In his industry, he argued, it’s difficult to separate digital solutions from customer engagement. “Without a good digital solution,” he wrote, “a financial institution may not be able to create positive personalized experiences that engender customer loyalty.”

Making Choices

In an email conversation, MIT Sloan Management Review raised Naseem’s question with Ross, Sebastian, and Beath. They responded:

“Companies must choose one digital strategy, either customer engagement or digitized solutions. The goal of customer engagement is to address customer needs and generate loyalty through a personalized experience. Like all strategies, developing digital business strategies involves making choices — both what you will do and what you won’t do. If a company doesn’t explicitly prioritize one goal over another, it puts senior management in the position of constantly weighing the trade-offs whenever there are decisions about resource allocation or organization structure. If you don’t make your strategic choice explicit, you will spend too much time debating the priorities.

“Beyond the investment of time, not choosing hinders efforts to integrate a company’s products and services. Invariably, the sales and service people will operate in their own customer engagement silo, while the product people will operate in their own digitized solutions silo. Obviously, there will be communication across the silos, but integration — as seen through the eyes of a customer — will be elusive.

“Finally, when you choose one strategy over the other, you will develop a technology base designed to implement that strategy. Customer engagement strategies often demand exceptional customer data; a digitized solutions strategy, on the other hand, might revolve around core systems targeting product life-cycle management or the sensors and analytics built into solutions involving the internet of things.”

Why Can’t We Have More Than One Digital Strategy?

High Speed Two: Britain’s $65 billion rebalancing bet

Improved rail connectivity could transform development opportunities—and the entire economy—in the United Kingdom.
High Speed Two: Britain’s $65 billion rebalancing bet

How to start building your next-generation operating model

Each company’s path to a new operating model is unique. But successful transformations are all constructed with the same set of building blocks.
How to start building your next-generation operating model

Using fintech to democratize financial services

PayPal’s CEO explains how digital can bring new people into the banking fold and create opportunities for them to spend, save, and make charitable contributions.
Using fintech to democratize financial services

Mastering the Digital Innovation Challenge

To Improve Cybersecurity, Think Like a Hacker

Moneyball for engineers: What the semiconductor industry can learn from sports

R&D leaders can boost productivity by using advanced analytics to create stronger, faster engineering teams.
Moneyball for engineers: What the semiconductor industry can learn from sports

11 Simple Ways to Increase Your Sales Performance

How to Increase Your Current Sales Performance     1. Simplify your current vision Start by knowing your current market area of interest. What exactly you do most effective? Exactly who requires what your company can do? How can you … Continued

The post 11 Simple Ways to Increase Your Sales Performance appeared first on Mr Dashboard.

11 Simple Ways to Increase Your Sales Performance

Inclusive Value Measurement (IVM)

What Is Inclusive Value Measurement? Inclusive Value Measurement Definition Inclusive Value Measurement: the method of determining the entire value associated with intellectual capital by which value information is utilized over financial information. IVM is the acronym for Inclusive Value Measurement. … Continued

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Inclusive Value Measurement (IVM)

What Is Break-Even Point?

What is a break-even point? Throughout business management, break-even point is the revenue required to take care of the firm’s amount of fixed plus variable costs throughout a given time period. The actual revenue can be reported with dollars, with … Continued

The post What Is Break-Even Point? appeared first on Mr Dashboard.

What Is Break-Even Point?

KPN dials up a new digital strategy

The leader of digital IT at the Netherlands-based telecommunications company explains how KPN reintegrated previously outsourced expertise and shifted to agile ways of working.
KPN dials up a new digital strategy

What’s Your Data Worth?

From one well to thousands: The innovation multiplier in unconventionals

Steve Schlotterbeck, CEO of EQT Corporation, comments on the opportunities and challenges of leading one of the largest producers in the world-class Marcellus Shale region.
From one well to thousands: The innovation multiplier in unconventionals

Agility in US national security

Even the world’s largest bureaucracy can learn to dance. This excerpt from a new book published by Aspen Strategy Group suggests how.
Agility in US national security

The Customer-Inventor Revolution

Malcolm Baldrige Award Categories For Quality Management And Performance

Baldrige Award Categories Baldrige Award Categories: The award to boost understanding of quality management and also identify businesses that have applied thriving quality management programs. Awards are usually granted every year throughout 6 Baldrige Award Categories: production, services, small business, … Continued

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Malcolm Baldrige Award Categories For Quality Management And Performance

Connecting talent with opportunity in the digital age

Online talent platforms are increasingly connecting people to the right work opportunities. By 2025 they could add $2.7 trillion to global GDP, and begin to ameliorate many of the persistent problems in the world’s labor markets, write James Manyika, Susan Lund, Kelsey Robinson, John Valentino, and Richard Dobbs in a report issued by McKinsey Global Institute.
Connecting talent with opportunity in the digital age

A disconnected Middle East

Our new report, Global Flows in a Digital Age: How Trade, Finance, People, and Data Connect the World Economy, features an index of "connectedness" that measures cross-border flows of goods, services, finance, people, and data and communications. In addition to allowing country-by-country comparisons, it includes regional rankings. The MENA average ranks 47th in the world, making it the second-worst-performing region; only Sub-Saharan Africa is less connected, write James Manyika and Susan Lund in The Cairo Review of Global Affairs.
A disconnected Middle East

Innovation is not enough

Techno-optimists ignore the importance of economy-wide effects on productivity, writes Dani Rodrik in Innovation & Technology.
Innovation is not enough

Country appendix connecting talent with opportunity in the digital age

Country appendix
Country appendix connecting talent with opportunity in the digital age

Putting profits in perspective

High corporate profits can result in market concentration, indicating decreased competition in various sectors. However, it would be incorrect to conclude that weakening competition is driving these economic trends. There are several swiftly changing sectoral dynamics involved, write James Manyika and Laura Tyson in Project Syndicate.
Putting profits in perspective

The next-generation operating model for the digital world

Companies need to increase revenues, lower costs, and delight customers. Doing that requires reinventing the operating model.
The next-generation operating model for the digital world

How semiconductor companies can win in China’s new product-development landscape

Product-design centers in China want to become stronger engines of global innovation. What does this mean for semiconductor suppliers?
How semiconductor companies can win in China’s new product-development landscape

The Corporate Implications of Longer Lives

How to Thrive — and Survive — in a World of AI Disruption