1160 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

Most companies plan to continue providing investors with frequent earnings guidance, though executives disagree about its costs and benefits.

Content: Related Content | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Finance

Many managers rely on deliberate cognition—that is, the ability of the human mind to process and analyze information—and an appeal to reason. By contrast, insurgents realize that audiences rely on automatic cognition, or shortcuts, to make sense of the world. Hence, they use symbols to communicate their point of view.

Content: Quotation | Author: Hayagreeva Rao | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Communication, Organizational Behavior, Persuasion

There’s already been a big revolution in how we view intellectual property. So it’s not so much the question of what’s owned or what’s not owned. It’s a question of how can you leverage the assets you have to realize the most value.

Content: Quotation | Author: Hal R. Varian | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Intellectual Property

Formalizing a company’s ad hoc peer groups can spur collaboration and unlock value.

Content: Article | Authors: Eric Matson, Leigh M. Weiss, Lowell Bryan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

A carefully constructed change agent program is essential to any successful operational transformation.

Content: Article | Authors: Arnaud Despierre, Gautam Kumra, Philippe Arrata | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Management, Organizational Behavior

A study of the performance of more than 400 companies over 30 years reveals that firms find it difficult to maintain higher performance levels than do their competitors for more than about five years at a time. Long-term superior performance is achieved not through sustainable competitive advantage but by continuously developing and adapting new sources of temporary advantage and thus being the fastest runner in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Eric Beinhocker | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Competition, Strategy

The field of statistics is based on something called the law of large numbers: as you increase your sample size, no single observation is going to hurt you. Sometimes that works. But the rules are based on classes of distribution that don’t always hold in our world.

All statistics come from games. But our world doesn’t resemble games. We don’t have dice that can deliver. Instead … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Risk Management, Statistics

I don’t like scenario planning, because people don’t think out of the box. So scenario planning may focus on four, five, or six scenarios that you can envision, at the expense of others you can’t. Instead of looking at scenarios and forecasts, you should be looking to see how fragile your portfolio is. How vulnerable are you to model error? How vulnerable is your cash … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Future, Risk Management, Strategy

What do self-respecting entrepreneurs do when subjected to new regulations? They learn the regulations backward and forward and then vow never to start another business that falls within the scope of those regulations. And so off the entrepreneur goes to find a new way.

The new entrepreneur often seeks ways to innovate outside the scope of the newly established regulations. In the beginning, all that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Foster | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, Entrepreneurship, Government

The essence of capitalism is capitalizing—bringing forward the future value of cash to the present so that society can grow more quickly by taking risks. It goes back to the Dutchmen in the 16th century, sitting at their coffeehouses in Amsterdam and Leiden, loaning each other money for a guaranteed return. Someone said, “I’ll give you a little higher return if you give me a … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Foster | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

As globalization continues to play out over the next 30 years, geographic and regulatory barriers will fall, electronic distribution will start to parallel and even overtake physical distribution, installed capacity will become obsolete before it is depreciated, and focused competitors will attack like piranhas. Companies must restructure or die.

Editor’s Note: a bit topical in places (written in 1999) but still a good read

Content: Article | Authors: Jane Fraser, Lowell Bryan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: International, Management, Strategy

Incentives are good in principle, but did Bear Stearns get competent risk management in return for the $4.4 billion bonus pool it distributed in 2006? Does any organization have to give its CEO a $40 million bonus to secure his services? If you pay people enough money to make any future payment beside the point, don’t be surprised when they take vast long-term risks for … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Rumelt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Accountability, Human Resources, Management, Motivation

During structural breaks in hard times, cutting costs isn’t enough. Things have to be done differently, and on two levels: reducing the complexity of corporate structures and transforming business models. At the corporate level, the first commandment is to simplify and simplify again. Since companies must become more modular and diverse, eliminate coordinating committees, review boards, and other mechanisms connecting businesses, products, or geographies. The … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Rumelt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Reorganization

Sandra Dawson addresses the changing role of women in business over the last 40 years.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Mary C. Meaney, Sandra Dawson | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: People, Women in Business

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A new approach to leadership can help women become more self-confident and effective business leaders.

Content: Article | Authors: Joanna Barsh, Rebecca A. Craske, Susie Cranston | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Leadership

The central challenge of a segmentation strategy isn’t how to develop one—a variety of approaches work—but how to make it useful and integrate it into a company’s ongoing planning and performance-management efforts. The segmentation must explicitly link corporate financial objectives to the behavior of people in a segment and to customer experience goals. This linkage allows general managers and marketers to understand how the experiences … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Marc Singer, Peter W. Dahlström, Sean R. Collins | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Customer Related, Management, Marketing / Sales

Our 2007 study of 7,751 consumers around the world identifies barriers to buying green at all five stages of the purchase process. In the first stage, awareness, consumers must be aware that a product exists before they can buy it, but many of them don’t know about the green choices in a number of categories. Next, consumers must believe that a product will get the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Jeremy M. Oppenheim, Sheila M. J. Bonini | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Marketing / Sales | Industry: Retail

Companies are vulnerable to misconceptions, biases, and plain old lies. But not hopelessly vulnerable.

Content: Article | Authors: Dan P. Lovallo, Olivier Sibony | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy

The option valuation recognizes the value of learning. This is important, because strategic decisions are rarely one-time events, particularly in investment-intensive industrial sectors. NPV, which does not properly recognize the value of learning more before a full commitment is made, is for that reason often inadequate. In fact, its inadequacy can be stated in the precise terms of the real-options model. Of the six variables … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Keith Leslie, Max P. Michaels | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management