1159 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

A useful framing, we find, is to compare the breadth of ESG with the uniqueness of purpose. ESG encompasses society’s wide range of expectations about the role of business. There are a multitude of ESG options, requirements, and variations—from community service to inclusivity, transparency in reporting, and waste management, to name just a few. Purpose, on the other hand, helps your firm prioritize from among … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bruce Simpson, Jinchen Zou, Matt Stone, Olivia Loadwick, Robin Nuttall, Sebastian Leape | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Purpose answers the question, “What would the world lose if your company disappeared?” It defines a company’s core reason for being and its resulting positive impact on the world. Winning companies are driven by purpose, reach higher for it, and achieve more because of it. Competitors wonder where they can get some of that magic and how they might sprinkle it on.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bruce Simpson, Jinchen Zou, Matt Stone, Olivia Loadwick, Robin Nuttall, Sebastian Leape | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

From project-based work to a lack of hierarchy, the way people work is changing fast. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Chris Gagnon and Elizabeth Mygatt talk about what it takes for companies to be “future ready”

Content: Article | Authors: Chris Gagnon, Diane Brady, Elizabeth Mygatt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

[A premortem is where] at the start of a project, you imagine that the project went wrong and think about what could have caused that result. You put yourself into the future and, in a non-judgmental way, think of all the things that could derail the project. It creates a safe way for people to discuss their concerns without being perceived as criticizing the project. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Dan P. Lovallo, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Project Management

Designing, managing, and delivering a positive experience is especially important during the post-merger talent selection process—not only for employees offered positions but also for those not selected or who choose to leave. How the HR and integration teams treat the latter groups can have far-reaching effects on workplace morale and the company’s reputation as an employer of choice.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Becky Kaetzler, Jocelyn Chao, Laura Lynch, Natashya Lalani | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

It’s time to bring advanced analytics into the strategy room—here’s why.

Content: Article | Authors: Chris Mulligan, Nicholas Northcote, Sasha Vesuvala, Tido Röder | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Strategy

Don’t take a lack of external data as an impediment—it may actually be a gift, since purchasable data is almost always from a conventional way of meeting needs, and is available to your competitors too. Your own experiments allow you to generate your own data; this gives you insights that others don’t have. If it is difficult (or unethical) to experiment, look for the “natural … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Charles Conn, Robert McLean | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Market Research, Marketing / Sales

[If] an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself except [its] beliefs as it moves through corporate life.

Content: Quotation | Author: Thomas J. Watson Jr. | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

The corporation, like society itself, is a congregation of human beings and, like society itself, it prospers to the extent that the relationships it maintains are fruitful, harmonious, and mutually beneficial.

Content: Quotation | Author: Crawford H. Greenewalt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Just as with other business priorities, stakeholder capitalism is a matter of execution. Here are five steps to get it right.

Content: Article | Authors: Robin Nuttall, Vivian Hunt, Yuito Yamada | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

New tools that help pinpoint complexity’s cost—and where it comes from—can help companies make better tradeoffs in managing product portfolios.

Authors: Alessandro Faure Ragani, Bikramjit Chaudhury, Ruth Heuss, Thorsten Schleyer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Operations

Even though most business schools, executive training courses, and leadership programs espouse servant leadership, few bosses manage to fully commit to it. Perhaps that’s no surprise. In most organizations, the average manager has neither the incentives nor the skills to focus on employee happiness. Consider how most businesses make promotion decisions: people who get ahead tend to be either current high performers or those who … [ Read more ]

Authors: Bill Schaninger, Tera Allas | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

In many ways, there is only one question any manager need ask: How do I make my team members’ lives easier—physically, cognitively, and emotionally?

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bill Schaninger, Tera Allas | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Management

It stands to reason that managers would play a crucial role in their employees’ workplace happiness. The wealth of literature on what makes for a good workplace highlights two aspects that line managers directly control: good work organization—that is, providing workers with the context, guidance, tools, and autonomy to minimize frustration and make their jobs meaningful—and psychological safety, which is the absence of interpersonal fear … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bill Schaninger, Tera Allas | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Regular partnership check-ins are essential to make sure that, like any relationship, both sides are getting what they need.

Content: Article | Authors: Ankur Agrawal, Eileen Kelly Rinaudo, Sean Brown | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Management

About one-third of US companies reallocate no more than 1 percent of their resources from year to year. Whether through bias, office politics, or plain old inertia, they simply roll this year’s plan into next year. It should, by now, go without saying that this is a terrible starting position from which to expect transformative change. Companies can escape the cycle by creating target portfolios, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Chris Bradley, Marc de Jong, Wesley Walden | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management

Companies should embrace nine imperatives that collectively explain “who we are” as an organization, “how we operate,” and “how we grow.”

Content: Article | Authors: Aaron De Smet, Chris Gagnon, Elizabeth Mygatt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Management

Start-ups often take a while to get their execution right, primarily because of founder overoptimism. On the one hand, optimism is necessary to create a company. But on the other hand, that same optimism gets them into trouble by getting in the way of good judgment. Achieving the proper balance between optimism and execution takes one to two business-building cycles. You also need to balance … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Vivek Mehra | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Retaining critical talent and ensuring the right people are in key roles are essential to a successful merger.

Content: Article | Authors: Becky Kaetzler, Jocelyn Chao, Laura Lynch, Natashya Lalani | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Mergers & Acquisitions

American capitalism has evolved time and again, and we may be poised for another such shift. Will the future of capitalism involve tweaks, reforms, or wholesale change?

Content: Article | Authors: Gary Pinkus, James Manyika, Monique Tuin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics