1166 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

The secret of the helix lies in disaggregating the traditional management hierarchy into two separate, parallel lines of accountability—roughly equal in power and authority, but fundamentally different.

One of the two lines helps develop people and capabilities, sets standards for how work is done, and drives functional excellence; the other focuses those people and capabilities on the priorities for the business (including overseeing their day-to-day work), … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Aaron De Smet, Kirsten Weerda, Sarah Kleinman | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Yesterday’s data architecture can’t meet today’s need for speed, flexibility, and innovation. The key to a successful upgrade—and significant potential rewards—is agility.

Content: Article | Authors: Antonio Castro, Henning Soller, Jorge Machado, Matthias Roggendorf | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

The seller’s focus on three key interrelated activities—defining, marketing, and disentangling—can help expedite the transfer of divested assets and increase total deal value.

Content: Article | Authors: Anthony Luu, Jamie Koenig, Steve Miller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Historically, we’ve been disproportionately focused on the value of the cascade, the leader, change leaders. They’re still all very important. But, increasingly, as we are a workforce comprised of a generation that has a lot of their actions that are digitally based, we’ve had to come to grips with the idea that influencers and opinion leaders and people in the social network, their role modeling … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bill Schaninger | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Leadership, Organizational Behavior

When I recently joined the board of a public company, I asked them if they’ve looked at how an activist would attack them. If a company hasn’t, that tells me it’s not on their minds. What do you think the activists would be picking on? If management is not open to that alternative viewpoint, it’s not a good thing.

Content: Quotation | Author: Russell Fradin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Corporate Governance

A company needs to be really clear on why they’re acquiring something. If it’s an acqui-hire, then it’s the talent. If it’s a business-model acquisition, it’s the business, the technology, and the IP [intellectual property]. There are lots of different reasons. So first, be super clear on why you’re acquiring something. And then, I always like to say, there’s pitchers and catchers. The pitcher is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

We’ve done a lot of research around what really makes for a high-performance innovation team. What we’ve found is that, if you go to Silicon Valley or Berlin or Singapore or Israel and look for the entrepreneurs—individual founders—they overweight slightly on the vision and the collaborations and underweight slightly on the execution and learning. But again, it depends on the individual.

But in a corporate environment, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

One of the questions we often get asked is, “How do I get the best innovation talent into my organization?” It’s an interesting question because of course we all want to find the most talented individuals and the most high-performing individuals to drive some of our most important endeavors.

But as we look at innovation, what we’re finding is there just aren’t that many people who … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Erik Roth | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Innovation

Improve the odds of a successful business transformation by going “all in” to kick-start performance and remake your portfolio.

Content: Article | Authors: Chris Bradley, Marc de Jong, Wesley Walden | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Strategy

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To catalyze breakthrough growth, leaders must set bold aspirations, make tough choices, and mobilize resources at scale.

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

Getting your environmental, social, and governance (ESG) proposition right links to higher value creation. Here’s why.

Content: Article | Authors: Robin Nuttall, Tim Koller, Witold Henisz | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Multiple studies have indicated the degree to which business leaders are loath to kill projects. One such study developed by IESE Business School Professor Luis Huete found that companies and individuals that have had a track record of success have a harder time killing projects, because they carry with them an ingrained belief that they can turn everything into gold, so long as everyone works … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Dan P. Lovallo, J. André de Barros Teixeira, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

New research shows that companies that know how to shift critical resources where and when they’re needed share common traits. Rigor is the first one.

Content: Article | Authors: Massimo Garbuio, Tim Koller, Zane Williams | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management

Many workplaces are characterized by competing agendas and conflict (no alignment on direction), by politics and bureaucracy (low quality of execution), and by the corrosive idea that work is “just a job” (a low sense of renewal). These aren’t just unhealthy for companies that want to deliver sustainable bottom-line results—they are unhealthy for the human soul. […] Healthy organizations, by contrast, unleash our potential and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bill Schaninger, Scott Keller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Performance is what an enterprise does to deliver improved financial and operational results for its stakeholders. Companies evaluate their performance through financial and operational metrics such as net operating profit, returns on capital employed, total shareholder returns, net operating costs, and stock turn (and the relevant equivalents in not-for-profit and service industries). By contrast, health describes how effectively people work together to pursue a common … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bill Schaninger, Scott Keller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

New research confirms that companies that regularly and systematically pursue moderately sized M&A deliver better shareholder returns than companies that don’t.

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

We’ve seen one of the interesting challenges is around performance management and a sense of who’s actually successful. How do we know how well they’re doing? When you can count widgets sold or airplane engines sold, you get it. You can look at margin and things like that. But for these more complicated roles, you say, “Well, who’s good?” You get some really squishy answers … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bill Schaninger | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Human Resources

We make decisions every day about who we hire, how we deploy them, what teams we put them in, what we have them working on. Then we sit in judgment of their performances. Every one of those decisions can be made better with data. Not all those decisions are equally important, so you don’t have to bring it to bear in all of them, but … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bill Schaninger | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, IT / Technology / E-Business

CEOs who pivot to a longer view of health and performance make the right moves for their companies, though it’s sometimes their successors who reap the rewards.

Content: Article | Authors: Kurt Strovink, Michael Birshan, Thomas Meakin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Management