1159 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

If we look at the distance between that minimum standard and how we actually want to interact with one another—with trust, kindness, respect, love, and care—there’s a very big gap. Laws can only do so much. You can’t legislate kindness; I can’t order you to treat me with respect. What this means for organizations is that policies are essential, but it’s also important to create … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jessica Nordell | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Communication, Organizational Behavior

Is tech accelerating your business operations—or getting in the way? To get lasting value from their tech investments, business leaders need a renewed understanding of operational excellence.

Content: Article | Authors: Erik Schaefer, Ian Colotla, Joris Wijpkema, Richard Sellschop, Ted Iverson, William Fookes | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Operations

The most effective resource allocation processes are radically simple.

Content: Article | Authors: Tim Koller, Zuzanna Kraszewska | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Finance

Power is not something like a bottle of water that gets used up the more you drink it. It’s something that gets created the more effectively you use it.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Power / Authority

Breaking rules has many advantages. The first advantage of breaking the rules is that it catches people by surprise. […] The rules are made by those already in power. If you’re already in power, follow the rules. If you’re not, make your own.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development, Power / Authority

No one is hired to win a popularity contest—you’re hired to get things done. You’re hired to make things happen, so when you show up to lead a group of people, those people want many things from you. What they don’t necessarily want from you is your authentic self.

What they need from you is inspiration. They need energy, even if you’re not feeling energetic that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

We know that educational credentials help predict salary. We know that gender and race help predict salary, even though they shouldn’t. We know that years of service, or seniority, helps predict salary, and there’s some evidence to suggest that years of service is one of the more important predictors of salary.

Gender, race, years of service, and educational credentials all have nothing to do with performance. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Compensation, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

I would define power as the ability to get things done your way in contested situations.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Power / Authority

Your strategy can change from time to time, the businesses that you are in can change from time to time. Technology changes from time to time. But your culture and the way you work and therefore your ability to attract and motivate talent—and then to apply that to different, new problems—is what’s sustainable.

Content: Quotation | Author: Andy Penn | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Culture, Organizational Behavior

It’s hard for companies to significantly beat long-term market TSR, harder still for the largest corporations, and hardest of all in the face of low growth. But industry endowment needn’t be destiny.

Content: Article | Authors: Pedro Catarino, Rosen Kotsev, Tim Koller, Zane Williams | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Strategy

New research offers business and technology leaders insights into the age-old challenge of improving IT productivity.

Content: Article | Authors: Alexey Ivanov, and Rahil Jogani, André Jerenz, Arsen Storozhev, Leorizio D’Aversa, Natalia Boksha, Naufal Khan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, IT / Technology / E-Business

Generative AI is already making its way into the day-to-day world of M&A, and more use cases are emerging. How should companies approach the opportunity?

Content: Article | Authors: Ben Ellencweig, Julia Berbel, Mieke Van Oostende, Rui Silva | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Mergers & Acquisitions

The big dysfunction that happens on boards is we say, “Let’s bring in outsiders, people with different backgrounds and representing different social, political, and economic interests.” That’s great, except now you have a roomful of people who don’t understand the business. The language these people have in common is financial accounting, so that’s what they concentrate on. As long as things are going great that’s … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Rumelt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Strategy

Some people say, “Strategy is important, but it’s really about execution.” That’s silly. That’s like saying, “We have a military strategy, but our soldiers are too fat to walk.” Execution is part of strategy, of course. Strategy is about what is important and the challenges you face. If one of these challenges is that the organization is dysfunctional, then that’s strategic. If your managers are … [ Read more ]

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

[Strategy] has to do with a focus of strength against weakness. In business, it’s a focus of strength against opportunities or problems. That focus of strength is essential. If you focus resources on a weak point, even if it’s a great opportunity, you are not acting strategically.

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Rumelt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

This gap between action and ambition is where most bad strategies come from. Bad strategy is almost a literary form that uses PowerPoint slides to say, “Here is how we will look as a company in a year or in three years.” That’s interesting, but it’s not a strategy.

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Rumelt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

Many companies treat strategy as a way of presenting to the board and to the investing public their ambitions for performance, and they confuse that with having a strategy. Some of it is the victory of finance as the language of business because we talk about shareholder return as the ultimate measure of success. Executives end up saying, “Our strategy is to achieve these results,” … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Rumelt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

More than half of employees report being relatively unproductive at work. New research into six types of employees shows how companies can re-engage workers while amplifying the impact of star performers.

Content: Article | Authors: Aaron De Smet, Angelika Reich, Bill Schaninger, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Geopolitical uncertainty is forcing global companies to take a hard look at the decades-long strategy of geographic expansion.

Content: Article | Authors: Andrew Grant, Michael Birshan, Olivia White, Ziad Haider | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: International

Organizations that follow a progression of steps to achieve excellence in digital delivery may see improvements in effectiveness, productivity, and performance, as well as significant increases in speed.

Content: Article | Authors: Dan Gardner, Lauren McCoy, Moid Mohammed, Rishi Markenday, Santiago Comella-Dorda, Vik Sohoni | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Management, Organizational Behavior