1160 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

Call centers are an essential part of the marketing and customer care strategy of many companies, but too many executives consider these operations a necessary expense rather than a way to generate new business. Indiscriminately moving customer traffic to a company’s Web site or outsourcing call centers haphazardly can make them less rather than more effective.

Content: Article | Authors: Deepak K. Khandelwal, Keith A. Gilson | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Companies that understand the value of talented people in generating brands, reputations, and other intangibles often spend considerable time recruiting such workers but drop the ball in providing them with opportunities to develop and grow.

Content: Article | Authors: Claudia Joyce, Leigh M. Weiss, Lowell Bryan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Human Resources

The forces of globalization, technology, and economic liberalization are combining to make life harder than ever for established companies.

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Huyett, Patrick Viguerie | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: International, Strategy

The world’s wealthiest countries will need to save more and increase their capital efficiency or they risk lowering their standard of living.

Content: Article | Authors: Diana Farrell, Sacha Ghai, Tim Shavers | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Demographics, Economics

The aging of European populations will threaten living standards and prosperity.

Content: Article | Author: Diana Farrell | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, International – Europe

The rapid aging of the Japanese population will dramatically reduce savings and wealth-and cut off an important supply of capital to the world.

Content: Article | Authors: Diana Farrell, Ezra Greenberg | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, International – Asia

In 2000, Nissan Motor announced its biggest loss ever. A year later, it reported the largest net profit in its history. The turnaround was led by Carlos Ghosn, one of the few foreign executives ever to head a Japanese company. In this interview, he discusses his first year at Nissan.

Content: Thought Leader | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Management | Industry: Automotive

Teams rarely manage to improve their performance wholly outside their active working environment, so short-term workshops, no matter how attractive the setting or how heart-felt and candid the members’ exchanges may be, aren’t likely to change their mode of working. Structured self-discovery and reflection must be combined with decision making and action in the real world; the constant interplay among these elements over time is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Teamwork

Private equity firms score their biggest wins by helping the companies in their portfolios to outperform industry peers. Our research shows that these firms do so by governing their companies actively, offering focused incentives, investing lots of time during the first 100 days, developing plans to create value, and changing management teams early when necessary.

Content: Article | Authors: Conor Kehoe, Joachim Heel | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Venture Capital

Different local market environments create quite different opportunities for pricing. You must understand these environments to set prices optimally.

Content: Article | Authors: Cristopher C. Eugster, Eric V. Roegner, Jatin N. Kakkar | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing

Good accounting results and rising share prices can mask trouble ahead, and companies can create substantial value despite falling share prices. Developing a holistic picture of the health of a company-its ability to generate and sustain value-is difficult but doable.

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

This series of interactive exhibits depicts the shape-and scope-of India’s remarkable economic transition and its effects on consumers and businesses and then examines some of the challenges facing the country.

Content: Article | Author: Jayant Sinha | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: International – Asia

The shift toward tacit (complex) interactions upends everything we know about organizations. Since the days of Alfred Sloan, corporations have resembled pyramids, with a limited number of tacit employees (managers) on top coordinating a broad span of workers engaged in production and transactional labor. Hierarchical structures and strict performance metrics that tabulate inputs and outputs therefore lie at the heart of most organizations today.

But the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Trends / Analysis

After years of playing defense, corporate directors are ready to roll. The McKinsey Quarterly’s survey of more than 1,000 directors, from 80 nations and a wide variety of industries, finds them eager to play an active role in setting strategy, assessing risks, and developing leaders. Yet though directors say that they want to focus on the long-term, strategic problems of the companies they serve, they … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Pamela Keenan Fritz, Robert F. Felton | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Corporate Governance

In-depth analysis of the financial assets of more than 100 countries shows that financial markets are becoming deeper, more liquid, and increasingly integrated.

Content: Article | Authors: Aneta Marcheva Key, Diana Farrell, Tim Shavers | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, International

Companies that send their back-office jobs offshore often cut their labor costs by as much as half. But new research by the McKinsey Global Institute finds that these companies risk leaving billions of dollars in savings behind if they merely replicate what they do at home in countries where labor is cheap. The savviest operators redesign business processes to exploit automation and take full advantage … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Diana Farrell, Jaana K. Remes, Vivek Agrawal | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Outsourcing / BPO

Directors and investors are demanding reform. Companies had better prepare for it.

Content: Article | Author: Robert F. Felton | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Corporate Governance

Valuations are linked to growth. So why are they lower in high-growth markets in Asia?

Content: Article | Authors: Marc H. Goedhart, Nicolas C. Leung, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: International – Asia

In “push” systems…the core assumptions are that companies and other institutions can anticipate demand and that mobilizing scarce resources in previously specified ways is the most efficient and reliable way to meet it. But the efficiency of push systems comes at a stiff price, for they require companies to specify, monitor, and enforce detailed activities and tasks. This rigidity necessarily restricts the number and diversity … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Financial officers in the high-tech sector should learn to balance six roles to help guide companies into a more mature market.

Content: Article | Authors: Bertil E. Chappuis, Kevin A. Frick, Paul J. Roche | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Finance