341 Posts found for Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Over the past few years, CEOs have been paying increasing attention to corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and ethics. In a recent global survey of business executives conducted by BCG and MIT Sloan Management Review, more than two-thirds of the 4,700 respondents agreed that sustainability is essential to competitiveness. Moreover, nearly three-quarters said that it is permanently on their agenda and that their commitment will increase … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Claire Love, Knut Haanæs, Martin Reeves, Wendy Woods | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Companies are incorporating sustainability into management agendas more than ever before, according to the results of a Sustainability & Innovation study conducted by BCG and MIT Sloan Management Review. And while not all organizations have found ways to profit from these efforts, those that have share some interesting characteristics.

Content: Article | Authors: David Kiron, Ingrid von Streng Velken, Knut Haanæs, Nina Kruschwitz | Sources: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Sloan Management Review (MIT) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

An internal/external sourcing ratio of between 60/40 and 70/30 is most effective in both attracting and retaining people who value career development opportunities. Attracting different talent profiles, and the cognitive diversity that results, improves a company’s problem-solving and innovating abilities. But building strong talent internally reduces the need to expand expensive and time-consuming recruiting processes and reinforces the company’s value proposition to employees and potential … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Jean-Michel Caye, Karin Hinshaw | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Human Resources

In an increasingly turbulent world, a company must continuously adapt its business model to changes in the ecological, social, and economic spheres over both short and long time horizons. We call the ability to do this “ecosocial advantage.”

Content: Quotation | Authors: Claire Love, Knut Haanæs, Martin Reeves, Wendy Woods | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

The Boston Consulting Group and the World Federation of People Management Associations (WFPMA) recently conducted major research to probe the relationship between people management capabilities and financial performance. We surveyed 4,288 HR and non-HR managers on their current HR capabilities and challenges, the strategies and approaches they use to address these challenges, and the difficulties they foresee in attracting, managing, and developing people. Our analysis … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Carsten von der Linden, Horacio Quiros, Jean-Michel Caye, Pieter Haen, Rainer Strack | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Best Practices, Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

A CEO’s strategic and investment choices are calculated bets, made in a competitive and uncertain environment. When developing a strategy to create value, it pays to know your company’s starting position. BCG has identified ten such positions, or value patterns, that define the moves most likely to create value.

Content: Article | Author: Gerry Hansell | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Strategy

In a two-speed world—one speed for slow-growing, mature markets and another for rapidly developing economies—the corporate center must step up to a new role. How can companies find the right balance between autonomy and entrepreneurial drive at the local level and global platforms that drive cost and scale advantages?

Content: Article | Authors: David Michael, Fabrice Roghé, Sandra Deutschländer, Sebastian Kempf | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: International, Management, Organizational Behavior

Companies can struggle to stay competitive when they have too many similar-minded employees. Yet a new BCG/EAPM survey shows that many companies still frame workforce diversity in terms of legal compliance. Tailored diversity measures should be employed for business reasons—to deliver better products, improve innovation, or make the organization more agile. Authors: Jean-Michel Caye, Caroline Teichmann, Rainer Strack, Pieter Haen, Stephanie Bird, Gerold Frick

Content: Article | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Human Resources

To improve manufacturing operations, don’t forget to fix the organizational issues that can hinder performance. These guidelines can help your company choose the optimal manufacturing setup, based on such factors as your industry, markets, customers, products, internal capabilities, competitive position, and overall strategy. Also included: tactics for managing the inevitable tradeoffs.

Content: Article | Authors: Daniel Spindelndreier, Frank Lesmeister, Michael Zinser | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Operations, Strategy

In today’s interconnected economy, some companies are so central that their failure would cause significant disruptions to the economy and to society as a whole. In order to avoid the imposition of regulatory constraints on their business, such systemically important companies need to take a broader approach to value creation.

Content: Article | Authors: Andy Maguire, Jérôme Hervé, Tamim Saleh, Tawfik Hammoud | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Management

Ever since Bruce Henderson introduced the growth-share matrix, corporate portfolio management has been a big part of the CEO agenda. But a recent BCG survey, conducted with Freiberg University in Germany, reveals a major gap between the effort companies put into portfolio management and its impact on corporate decision-making.

Editor’s Note: includes and excellent overview of CPM including history and common criticisms.

Content: Article | Authors: Harald Rubner, Matthias Krühler, Michael Nippa, Robert Untiedt, Ulrich Pidun | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Finance, Strategy

As organizations become increasingly global in scope and complex in structure, decisions that need to be made are often left unresolved. People who should be collaborating instead circle around one another warily. A tool known as a role charter can help ensure both effective decision-making and collaboration.

Content: Article | Authors: Andrew Toma, Julie Kilmann, Michael Shanahan | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Contrary to popular belief, serial acquirers create less value on average than companies that rarely do M&A, according to a BCG analysis of more than 26,000 deals. But the top serial acquirers generate superior value by focusing on the right targets at the right time. Contributors: Jens Kengelbach, Dominic C. Klemmer, Dr. Bernhard Schwetzler, Dr. Marco O. Sperling, Alexander Roos.

Content: Article | Author: Alexander Roos | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Given the instability and unpredictability of the new global reality, companies must learn to be as agile and adaptable as possible. In this new era of heightened economic volatility, planning becomes more, rather than less, critical. BCG highlights ten guiding principles for improving effectiveness and efficiency in the planning process.

Content: Article | Authors: Fabian Günther, Fabrice Roghé, Frank Plaschke | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Management

Organizational and people capabilities drive performance and enable strategy, but most companies do not know how to measure or take steps to improve them. We have identified 14 characteristics common to most high-performance organizations. Organizations that pursue and embody these 14 characteristics outperform their peers and generate a competitive edge.

Content: Article | Authors: Andrew Dyer, Jean-Michel Caye, Lisa Dymond, Paul Orlander, Vikram Bhalla, Yves Morieux | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Best Practices, Management

Given today’s volatile environment, the overall focus for planning must move away from precise forecasting and toward more strategic, top-down ambition-setting that is validated with bottom-up business insight. This approach should be tied to contingency plans in case the targets cannot be met—and complemented by more frequent short-term forecasts of key metrics. However, embracing unpredictability and encouraging entrepreneurship within reasonable limits entails a significant shift … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Planning

Companies are increasingly finding themselves part of—or competing against—highly networked systems of partners, customers, and suppliers. These systems are able to innovate rapidly, leapfrog the experience curve, and quickly attain market leadership. They require a different kind of management—one that allows some decisions to emerge from interactions among players.

Content: Article | Authors: Alex Bernhardt, Martin Reeves | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Strategy

High-performance organizations invest in employee development through training and by rotating people through roles and responsibilities. These experiences are a powerful motivational and retention tool that can trump compensation and other financial incentives. They also encourage collaboration and reduce the likelihood of parochial leadership behavior. By the time employees reach the top ranks, they have a broad view of the organization.

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Human Resources

Thinking “outside the box” is neither as desirable nor as liberating as it sounds, because the space outside the box is infinite. Faced with limitless possibilities, the human mind feels adrift and tends to fall back into the familiarity of “the box.” People cannot help using mental models, frameworks, and theories—or, as we called them, boxes—to organize their thinking. Thus, a far more powerful approach … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Alan Iny, Luc de Brabandere | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Strategy, Thought

Inflation has a corrosive effect on business performance, but like any economic threat, it tends to separate the wheat from the chaff. Those companies able to protect themselves from inflation’s negative effects can exploit an inflationary period to improve their competitive advantage. With prospects for inflation on the rise over the midterm, companies need to start now to make sure their organizations are “inflation ready.” … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Daniel Stelter, Ulrich Pidun | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Finance