1160 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

The challenge of resource allocation is determining where the resources will bring the most value, how much money and talent to redistribute, and how to put those shifts effectively into action.

Content: Article | Author: Yuval Atsmon | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management

The internal organization that manages a company’s M&A processes has always been a major contributor to the success of its deals. Today, as companies increasingly choose to manage their M&A processes internally, without the support of financial advisers, it’s all the more important to have the right team in place. This team must not only be skilled at screening acquisition targets, conducting due diligence, and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Cristina Ferrer, Eileen Kelly Rinaudo, Rebecca Doherty | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

To help CEOs and board chairs, as well as executives and directors, build strong boards, this CEO guide synthesizes multiple sources to make quick sense of complex issues in corporate governance, while focusing on four areas that are essential for building a better board.

Content: Article | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Corporate Governance

New CEOs are faced with a bewildering array of choices, so it’s crucial for them to take a data-driven look at potentially major moves—and to know when to make them.

Content: Article | Authors: Allen Webb, Michael Birshan, Thomas Meakin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Corporate Governance

With a higher degree of digital fluency, boards can help C-suite leaders make better decisions about how to expand a company’s most successful technology initiatives and when to pull the plug on lagging ones. In our experience, board directors are more likely to gain such fluency if they routinely ask these five critical questions relating to the IT organization’s performance.

Content: Article | Authors: Aditya Pande, Christoph Schrey | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, IT / Technology / E-Business

The benefits of agile are by now well known. Under agile development methodologies, IT organizations and product developers cocreate products and services with the business, rather than simply collecting feature specifications and throwing them back over the wall, as would happen under the waterfall development model. Teams can experiment with minimally viable products, test and learn from those prototypes, and ultimately deliver new software features … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Gerard Speksnijder, Santiago Comella-Dorda, Swati Lohiya | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Management

Too many companies squander the treasure that is customer feedback. The solution is systematically measuring the customer’s voice and integrating it into a culture of continuous feedback.

Content: Article | Authors: Alfonso Pulido, Harald Fanderl, Kevin Neher | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Customer Related, Management

Applying the principles of behavioral psychology can improve the quality of customer interactions and build brand recognition as a customer-centric organization.

Content: Article | Authors: Dilip Bhattacharjee, Hyo Yeon, Keith Gilson | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Customer Related

To maximize customer satisfaction, companies have long emphasized touchpoints. But doing so can divert attention from the more important issue: the customer’s end-to-end journey.

Content: Article | Authors: Kevin Neher, Nicolas Maechler, Robert Park | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Customer Related

The amount of time board directors spend on their work and commit to strategy is rising. But in a new survey, few respondents rate their boards as effective at most tasks or report good feedback or training practices.

Content: Article | Authors: Conor Kehoe, Frithjof Lund, Nina Spielmann | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Corporate Governance

The same handful of integration challenges vex companies year after year. New survey data suggest how high performers stay on top.

Content: Article | Authors: Andy West, Oliver Engert, Rebecca Doherty | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Most organizations we know have more leadership power within their ranks than they recognize. Some individuals quickly acquire reputations as rising stars and move up the ranks as if in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Others, for a variety of reasons, may miss the fast track. Some of these eventually leave in search of new pastures, while others stay behind, without ever reaching their full potential. Either … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Alexia Larmaraud, Emily Yueh, Kevin Lane | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Human Resources

Companies need to ground portfolio-management decisions, including divestitures, in the attributes that make them a better owner of their businesses. Such attributes can include, for example, unique skills, governance, insight, or even connections to other businesses. They can also include access to talent, capital, or relationships.

Tying divestitures to the better-owner principle means companies need to define explicit criteria for what good ownership looks like in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ruth De Backer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Executives need to get smarter about when to open up and when to withhold information so they can enjoy the benefits of organizational transparency while mitigating its unintended consequences.

Content: Article | Authors: Dan Cable, Julian Birkinshaw | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Slow progress in adding more women to boards has dominated the conversation. But tips from standout companies are more likely to inspire others to take firmer action.

Content: Article | Authors: Celia Huber, Sara O’Rourke | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Women in Business

Transforming analytics from a “science-fair project” to the core of a business model starts with leadership from the top. Here are five questions CEOs should be asking their executive teams.

Content: Article | Authors: Ari Libarikian, Bill Wiseman, Nicolaus Henke | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

For too many customer-care players, the one-size-fits-all approach does not balance two core dimensions we believe will mark the new era: the value and complexity of transactions and the right levels of human interaction and automation. When customers choose their preferred care channel, for example, they increasingly gauge a transaction’s complexity, decisively preferring self-service options for relatively simply ones. Enterprises must decide on the appropriate … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Greg Phalin, Jeff Berg, Keith Gilson | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Customer Related

Yes, but not by playing it safe. Set big goals, insist on a cultural shift, and model from the top.

Content: Article | Authors: Alexander Edlich, Allison Watson, Heiko Heimes | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Management

Charlan Nemeth at Berkeley […] finds is that people aren’t actually persuaded by devil’s advocates most of the time. One, they don’t argue forcefully enough because they don’t really believe the position: it’s “All right, I’m going to play a role here. I’ve checked the box, and now I can go right back to the majority view.”

And then, second, even if they do argue with … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Adam Grant | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Decision Making, Management, Organizational Behavior

There’s an amazing study by Justin Berg, a Stanford Graduate School of Business professor. He looks at circus performances—think Cirque du Soleil—and collects all these original acts done by different kinds of circus artists: jugglers, dancers, acrobats. He asks people to evaluate their own performances, and then he asks managers to evaluate them as well, and then he has performers judge each other’s videos.

Finally, he … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Adam Grant | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Creativity, Decision Making, Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior