1166 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

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

You need to understand the sources [of M&A revenue synergies], and there are three places we can categorize. One is where you sell. That includes new channels, cross-selling to existing customers, geography expansion. Then there is how you sell. This is where the sales force effectiveness or channel coverage matters. Then there is what you sell. Is the deal bringing new products or new bundles … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Andy West, Jeff Rudnicki | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Ignoring high-consequence, low-likelihood risks can be damaging to an organization, but preparing for everything is impossibly costly. Here is how leaders can make the right investments.

Content: Article | Authors: Fritz Nauck, Leigh Weiss, Ophelia Usher | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Risk Management

Common misconceptions about cloud are holding companies back from capturing the full benefits available.

Content: Article | Authors: Isabelle Tamburro, Leandro Santos, Mark Gu, Rich Isenberg | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

High failure rates, in our experience, are often correlated with inattention to assumptions, which underlie all innovation initiatives. Companies often confuse assertions with assumptions, stating confidently what “should be true” for an innovation concept (for example, the price premium that customers will pay) instead of acknowledging that it is merely a strong hypothesis that needs to be validated. We therefore encourage management teams to place … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Brian Quinn, Daniel Cohen, Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Innovation

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Research shows that active, efficient reallocation of resources creates better returns for companies than simply standing pat does. Here’s how to make portfolio decisions faster.

Content: Article | Authors: Anthony Luu, Obi Ezekoye | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

The product development process must integrate input from design, engineering, sales, marketing, procurement, and others. Each department or function brings its own perspective, or lens, to view the problem at hand, and competing lenses can either enhance or sideline the innovation process.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Jeff Salazar, Rob Loughlin, Scott Woodruff | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Management

Companies create more shareholder value when executives and directors concentrate on long-term results. A new report highlights behaviors that allow them to maintain a long-term orientation.

Content: Article | Authors: Ariel Babcock, Kevin Sneader, Sarah Keohane Williamson, Tim Koller, Victoria Potter | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Management

If you manage your household today, you need to figure out your mortgage, your insurance, utilities, and other factors associated with living in that house. In an ecosystem-based economy, you would have one node aggregating all those services for you. That leads to a very different dynamic in how companies compete, depending on whether you are the orchestrator of the ecosystem or a provider to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Tanguy Catlin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

Many organizations have spent decades understanding how to make trade-offs in their businesses, where the profit pools are, and the structure of their value chains. Digital changes all that. First, on an overarching level, digital currently destroys more economic value for incumbents than it creates. There are two main drivers. The first one is that digital creates transparency that allows a much higher percentage of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Laura LaBerge | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Strategy, Trends / Analysis

Consumers and society at large are expecting more from business. Embracing these responsibilities can help shareholders, too.

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

Businesses looking to make an external social contribution should, paradoxically, look inside: improving workers’ job satisfaction could be the single most important thing they do.

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

Your company’s purpose strengthens resilience and creates value—if it’s genuine. A new framework highlights a detailed approach to embedding purpose throughout your organization.

Content: Article | Authors: Bruce Simpson, Jinchen Zou, Matt Stone, Olivia Loadwick, Robin Nuttall, Sebastian Leape | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Management