1160 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

We assessed the early moves of CEOs with outstanding track records; some valuable lessons for leadership transitions emerged.

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

New CEOs typically raise the tempo of transactions at first, then the pace slows down. Is that costly?

Content: Article | Authors: Andy West, Michael Birshan, Thomas Meakin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Management, Mergers & Acquisitions

When companies set targets, we recommend starting with what’s theoretically achievable and adjusting this figure downward only when there’s clear evidence that certain actions are unrealistic. People arguing for a lower number ought to shoulder the burden of proof and be challenged to support their case with facts. In short, they must answer the question “why can’t we do this?”

Content: Quotation | Authors: Jared Sclove, Pooya Nikooyeh | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Management

Companies advance myriad strategies for creating value with acquisitions—but only a handful are likely to do so.

Content: Article | Authors: David Wessels, Marc H. Goedhart, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Everyone loves to hate on benchmarks, and I can understand where that comes from. There are people who have deep scars from watching benchmarks get misused and from trying to compare one company to another in a way that they aren’t similar.

That said, I have not seen anything be as effective as benchmarks in triggering some hard questions, such as “Why does it take 50 … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Shannon Hennessy | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Measurement

Business needs to raise productivity more than ever. Thanks to innovations in digitization and analytics, four new methodologies can yield the productivity breakthroughs organizations need.

Content: Article | Authors: Kevin Speicher, Mercedes Goenaga, Philipp Radtke, Rafael Westinner | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Operations

Too many companies are themselves unhappy customers when it comes to building measurement systems. Here’s how to make better investments.

Content: Article | Authors: Harald Fanderl, Kevin Neher, Ralph Breuer, Victoria Bough | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business

Analysis of high-stakes transformations reveals a few pragmatic lessons that increase the odds of meeting the organization’s objectives.

Content: Article | Authors: Benoît Maraite, Cornelia Piaia, Michael Bucy, Tony Fagan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Management

Some people formally embrace the agile way of working but do not let go of their existing organizational structure and governance. That defeats the whole purpose and only creates more frustration.

Content: Quotation | Author: Peter Jacobs | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Growth is shifting, disruption is accelerating, and societal tensions are rising. Confronting these dynamics will help you craft a better strategy, and forge a brighter future.

Editor’s Note: by its nature, this is a topical article but I think the analysis provided is interesting and I think it will still be worth reading in future years to see how accurate it turns out to be. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Ezra Greenberg, Martin Hirt, Sven Smit | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Trends / Analysis

Growth winners think about growth in new ways and pursue it across multiple dimensions.

Content: Article | Authors: Jesko Perrey, Kabir Ahuja, Liz Hilton Segel | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Humans are instinctively moral beings and I don’t see machines as ever entirely replacing those instincts. Computers are powerful complements to moral reasoning, not substitutes for it.

Content: Quotation | Author: Eric Maskin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, Miscellaneous

Analytics plays an increasingly important role in B2B sales—and high-performing sales organizations take it to a new level to differentiate themselves from the also-rans.

Content: Article | Authors: Charles Atkins, Lareina Yee, Maria Valdivieso de Uster, Mitra Mahdavian | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales

Two senior executives from the global bank describe their recent journey.

Content: Case Study | Authors: Bart Schlatmann, Peter Jacobs | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Management, Organizational Behavior

To fully benefit from new business technology, CIOs need to adapt their traditional IT functions to the opportunities and challenges of emerging technology “ecosystems.” Here’s how it’s done.

Content: Article | Authors: Driek Desmet, Niels Maerkedahl, Parker Shi | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

No one can predict when disaster will strike—but knowing what to expect if it does will buy precious time.

Content: Article | Authors: Mihir Mysore, Sanjay Kalavar | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Risk Management

Risk managers may argue that the basic principles of Risk and Control Management (R&CM) are well established, and indeed enshrined, in industry standards. The concepts may indeed be broadly known, but they are applied in such a scattered fashion that they are not fit for purpose.

The resourcing and costs of the R&CM approach should be aligned with the company’s structure, business model, and risk profile. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Joseba Eceiza, Piotr Kaminski, Thomas Poppensieker | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Risk Management

As companies grow, one of the biggest challenges is how to maintain cohesion. At the beginning, as companies get bigger, they get more effective through specialization of labor. But when they reach around 1,000 employees and above, you start to see reductions in productivity per person as communication breaks down. If you have a junior person in one department who needs to speak to another … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Elon Musk | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Communication, Organizational Behavior

Just because information may be incomplete, based on conjecture, or notably biased does not mean that it should be treated as “garbage.” Soft information does have value. Sometimes, it may even be essential, especially when people try to “connect the dots” between more exact inputs or make a best guess for the emerging future.

To optimize available information in an intelligent, nuanced way, companies should strive … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Helen Mayhew, Simon Williams, Tamim Saleh | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Decision Making, IT / Technology / E-Business, Knowledge Management, Management

There are 10 gender “impact zones” that need to be addressed in order to accelerate progress toward gender parity.

Content: Article | Authors: Anu Madgavkar, Kweilin Ellingrud, Mekala Krishnan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Women in Business