Is Your M&A Organization Built to Win?
Top-notch deal teams collaborate with business units to identify targets, execute transactions, and expertly navigate a minefield of risks.
- BCG collaborated with global dealmakers to study the common hazards and success factors involved in setting up M&A organizations.
- We found that making the right choices in several key areas is essential for building effective teams.
- Companies must tailor their design choices across these topics, applying a detailed
Content: Article | Authors: Anant Shivraj, Daniel Friedman, Daniel Kim, Jens Kengelbach, Maximilian Strauch | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions
Martin Reeves, Christian Stadler
Most technology revolutions have required accompanying applied innovations to unlock their full potential. Electricity in itself did not immediately translate into big productivity gains for industry. This only happened as new technologies like electric motors and social innovations like new factory layouts took hold.
Content: Quotation | Authors: Christian Stadler, Martin Reeves | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business
Martin Reeves, Christian Stadler
A new technology can be novel, it can be useful, it can even generate massive value for consumers and providers, but without creating sustainable competitive advantage in specific applications, it can easily distract and divert attention and resources from more promising opportunities.
Content: Quotation | Authors: Christian Stadler, Martin Reeves | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business
Your Growth Strategy Depends on Your Starting Point
There are three truths about revenue growth. It’s imperative. It’s perilous. And it’s possible regardless of your industry or starting point. Our latest research on growth confirms these truths. Ultimately, getting growth right entails making smart choices and investing time and money in them. We unearthed insights from successful growers that can help others choose their optimal growth path. Crucially, our analysis revealed that the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Asin Tavakoli, Holger Harreis, Kayvaun Rowshankish, Michael Bogobowicz | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Strategy
Charles Gildehaus, David Allred, Allison Bailey, Amanda Luther, Sesh Iyer
Agile initiatives have proven highly effective in teaching teams how to build but not nearly as effective in teaching teams what to build.
Content: Quotation | Authors: Allison Bailey, Amanda Luther, Charles Gildehaus, David Allred, Sesh Iyer | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Innovation, Management
Charles Gildehaus, David Allred, Allison Bailey, Amanda Luther, Sesh Iyer
As functional hierarchies grow larger, they tend to become more rigid, pushing decision-making authority up the hierarchy and away from where customer interactions take place. In this system, no single team or leader owns the full end-to-end product and customer experience, making it exceedingly difficult to implement customer-centric innovations quickly and effectively. As a result, frontline employees, who have the insights and inspiration to drive … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Authors: Allison Bailey, Amanda Luther, Charles Gildehaus, David Allred, Sesh Iyer | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Organizational Behavior
Four Keys to Boosting Inclusion and Beating Burnout
Organizations can focus their attention on just these four areas to diagnose where they may be falling short in their efforts to meet employees’ needs.
- Our survey of 11,000 workers in eight countries found that nearly half are dealing with burnout, which heightens attrition and lowers morale, engagement, and productivity.
- Burnout is highly correlated with low feelings of inclusion.
- The four sentiments that have the greatest impact on
Content: Article | Authors: Deborah Lovich, Gabrielle Novacek, Gretchen May, Hillary Wool, Mario Farsky, Roshni Rathi | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Human Resources, Motivation, Organizational Behavior
Elton Parker, Jeanne Kwong Bickford, Nick D’Intino, Alan Iny
Disruption creates both winners and losers. And you can only be one of the winners if you can see both sides of the coin—and are able not just to avoid the challenges, but also to envision and decisively embrace the potential opportunities within strategic risks. For most organizations, getting there requires a reboot of how they think about and evaluate risk. For example, instead of … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Authors: Alan Iny, Elton Parker, Jeanne Kwong Bickford, Nick D’Intino | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Innovation, Risk Management
Elton Parker, Jeanne Kwong Bickford, Nick D’Intino, Alan Iny
True strategic risk management is the discipline of anticipating, preparing for, capitalizing on or mitigating, and learning from the disruptions that could either enhance or impair the organization’s ability to achieve one or more strategic objectives. In our experience, at most companies, this crucial capability is rarely functionally embedded in the organization, core to the culture, or integrated into the strategy development and planning process. … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Authors: Alan Iny, Elton Parker, Jeanne Kwong Bickford, Nick D’Intino | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Risk Management
How to Think Clearly in Turbulent Times: Lessons from Charlie Munger
Munger’s success was built on a system for decision-making—not a classical investment philosophy, but rather a mental discipline underpinning one. We outline four ideas strategists can learn from Munger to think more clearly in turbulent times.
Content: Article | Author: Martin Reeves | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Decision Making, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development
Why Companies Get Agile Right—and Wrong
BCG conducted in-depth research with 127 companies worldwide regarding their experience with agile. Almost all (94%) had embarked on agile initiatives, and two thirds (66%) claimed successful agile transformations. But when we asked which agile practices they applied and what outcomes they achieved, we found that only about half (53%) could be considered truly agile, realizing their transformation targets and creating lasting change in their … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Benjamin Rehberg, Erik Lenhard, Jaap Backx, Michael Grebe, Nicolas Hunke, Nina Kataeva, Valerio Gardelli | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Best Practices, Management
How Companies Can Make Dynamic Pricing Fairer for Customers
Three actions are key as companies consider dynamic pricing models.
Content: Article | Author: Arnab Sinha | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing
The Corporate Life Cycle with Aswath Damodaran
In The Corporate Life Cycle: Business, Investment, and Management Implications, Aswath Damodaran presents the corporate life cycle as a universal key for demystifying business finance, strategy and company valuation. He outlines how corporations age, describes the characteristics of each stage of their life cycle, and discusses implications for managers and investors.
In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Damodaran outlines how … [ Read more ]
Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Aswath Damodaran, Martin Reeves | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: General
Five Truths (and One Lie) About Corporate Transformation
In an increasingly turbulent world, the need for and the challenges of corporate change remain remarkably persistent. Empirical insights reveal how change leaders can beat the odds. We highlight five truths about corporate transformation—and refute one lie that executives like to tell themselves.
Content: Article | Authors: Adam Job, Christian Gruß, Gabe Bouslov, Kristy Ellmer, Martin Reeves, Paul Catchlove | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Change Management
The Benefits of Data Sharing Now Outweigh the Risks
Sharing data with competitors might sound scary to executives, but only collaboration can solve some of industry’s biggest problems. Fortunately, new technology is making it easier and safer for companies to build trust and pool data in order to tackle problems that they can’t solve alone.
Content: Article | Author: Marcos Aguiar | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business
Turning Superheroes into a Super Leadership Team
In a complex, fast-changing world, leadership teams are facing challenges that are bigger than ever while trying to reach goals that are sometimes seemingly at odds. A super leadership team must:
- Guide the organization’s transformation while ensuring near-term performance.
- Shift from being a group of individual “superheroes” championing their own domains to putting the enterprise first—sometimes at the expense of team members’ individual agendas.
- Recognize the necessary behaviors
Content: Article | Authors: Brittany Heflin, Jennifer Thomas, Jim Hemerling, Megan Lindley | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Leadership
Hidden connections that transcend borders and defy stereotypes
Global consumer strategist Aparna Bharadwaj shares a fascinating glimpse at under-the-radar affinities that transcend cultures and borders — from the way people snack in China and Saudi Arabia to how people shop for clothes in the US and Russia. “There are patterns where you least expect them,” she says – and paying attention to them just might bring the world a little bit closer.
How to Create a Transformation That Lasts
Transformations are here to stay—and they will always be difficult. Success comes down to a few key things. Manage your processes rigorously, and institute strong governance. Use a stage-gate methodology to maximize the value of your initiatives, and use software and data to keep those initiatives on track. Put a TO at the center. Perhaps most important, set the bar high—and then look for the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Connor Currier, Cordelia Chansler, Julia Dhar, Kristy Ellmer, Paul Catchlove, Simon Weinstein | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Change Management
Your Strategy Needs a Story
Business strategy is usually born of a highly rational process, grounded in facts and analysis. Storytelling, often associated with fiction and entertainment, may seem like the antithesis of strategy. But the two are not incompatible. A clever strategy on paper is only the starting point for engaging those who will implement it. Strategies must also be communicated and understood — and they must motivate action. … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Madeleine Michael, Martin Reeves, Roeland van Straten, Tim Nolan | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Storytelling, Strategy
How CMOs Can Lead Transformations in an Era of Change
Companies are responding to a number of headwinds by transforming their marketing organizations to achieve measurable improvement in performance and efficiency and to ensure future sustainable growth. Chief marketing officers (CMO) are pursuing long-term changes instead of short-term fixes by focusing on structure, talent, and operating models—in that order—as they reshape their organizations.
Content: Article | Authors: Joe Simon, Lachelle Trout, Raakhi Agrawal, Shelby Senzer, Siwei He | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Marketing / Sales