1160 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

Ten timeless tests can help you kick the tires on your strategy, and kick up the level of strategic dialogue throughout your company.

Content: Article | Authors: Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, Sven Smit | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

You need a certain amount of discord in your meetings. If you just have discord, well, then you have a university, right? So what you want to do is you need a deadline. So discord plus deadline. Who enforces the deadline? Me. That’s my job. Or whoever is running the meeting. So if you have discord and deadline, then you’re likely to produce a consensus. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Eric Schmidt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Productivity / Work Tips

Four principles can help you make great financial decisions—even when the CFO’s not in the room.

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Huyett, Richard Dobbs, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management

Good stories have three components: a strong beginning, a strong end, and a point of tension. Most people confuse stories with situations. They’ll tell about a situation: X happened, Y happened, Z happened. But a good story takes Y, the middle part of the story, and creates tension or conflict where the reader or the audience is drawn into the story, what’s going to happen … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jennifer Aaker | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Storytelling

There are at least four important stories that all companies should have in their portfolio. The first is the “who am I?” story—you know, how did we get started? The second is the “vision” story, the “where are we going in the future?” This may or may not be connected to the “who are we?” story. A third is the “apology and recovery” story. In … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jennifer Aaker | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Storytelling

The problems of free access are fairly obvious: while workers may know how to use technology tools, they may not be skilled at searching for, using, or sharing the knowledge. One survey revealed that over a quarter of a typical knowledge worker’s time is spent searching for information. Another found that only 16 percent of the content within typical businesses is posted to locations where … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Thomas H. Davenport | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Knowledge, Productivity / Work Tips

80 percent of the variance in revenue growth is explained by choices about where to compete, leaving only 20 percent explained by choices about how to compete. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite of the allocation of time and effort in a typical strategy-development process. Companies should be shifting their attention greatly toward the “where” and should strive to outposition competitors by regularly reallocating resources … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, Sven Smit | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

No business has an inherent value in and of itself; it has a different value to different owners or potential owners—a value based on how they manage it and what strategy they pursue.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bill Huyett, Richard Dobbs, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management, Strategy

Know how to project power, counsels Stanford management professor Bob Sutton, since those you lead need to believe you have it for it to be effective. And to lock in your team’s loyalty, boldly defend their backs.

Content: Article | Author: Robert I. Sutton | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Leadership, Management

When companies reorganize, few get all the benefits they want in the planned time. Executives at organizations that succeeded point to some key tactics for implementation.

Content: Article | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

James Meindl’s research on “the romance of leadership” shows that leaders get far more credit—and blame—than they deserve, largely because, cognitively, it is easier and more emotionally satisfying to treat leadership as the primary cause of performance than to consider the convoluted and often subtle mishmash of factors that actually determine performance differences.

Content: Quotation | Author: Robert I. Sutton | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Leadership

The best bosses routinely give their followers more credit than they probably deserve. And when bosses do this, everyone wins. As the boss, you will get the lion’s share of credit because of the romance of leadership. Your immediate team will regard you as truthful. And your modesty and generosity will be admired—especially by outsiders, who will see you as both competent and generous. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Robert I. Sutton | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Leadership, Management

Leaders who denounce outside forces for their troubles come across as disingenuous and powerless. By refusing to take responsibility, they implicitly raise a damning question: “If you didn’t have the power to break it, how can you have the power to fix it?” The public also sees a boss’s refusal to accept responsibility as a sign that nothing has been learned from the errors.

Content: Quotation | Author: Robert I. Sutton | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Leadership

Adults learn in predictable steps. Before employees can master a new skill effectively, for example, they must be convinced it will help improve their organization’s performance, recognize that their own performance is weak in that area, and then actually choose to learn. Yet most corporate training programs overlook these prerequisites and just assume that employees “get it.” This approach is a big mistake because it … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Aaron De Smet, Elizabeth Schwartz, Monica McGurk | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Training & Development

To improve results from training programs, executives must focus on what happens in the workplace before and after employees go to class.

Content: Article | Authors: Aaron De Smet, Elizabeth Schwartz, Monica McGurk | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Management

A new model for managing IT combines factory-style productivity to keep costs down with a more nimble, innovation-focused approach to adapt to rapid change.

Content: Article | Authors: Hugo Sarrazin, Johnson Sikes, Roger Roberts | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

The behavioral economist explains why executives need to recognize—and embrace—the irrational forces that affect themselves and their employees.

Content: Thought Leader | Author: Dan Ariely | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Many executives strive for stable earnings growth, but research shows that investors don’t worry about variability.

Content: Article | Authors: Bin Jiang, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management

When a top team fails to function, it can paralyze a whole company. Here’s what CEOs need to watch out for.

Content: Article | Authors: Judy Malan, Michiel Kruyt, Rachel Tuffield | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Leadership

Former Merck CEO Raymond Gilmartin and three other leaders share their approaches to testing strategy.

Content: Article | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy