1159 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer shares advice for gaining power through resources, reputation, and relationships.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Jeffrey Pfeffer, Simon London | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Power / Authority

In a traditional hierarchical organization, it is not unusual to see seven, eight, or even nine layers of management. In agile, that effectively goes down to three. It is a radical shift, as middle managers don’t exist in the agile model, but the middle-management function remains, albeit in a different form. The role of middle management absolutely continues to be done, just not any longer … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Joe McCollum | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Are you in a situation where the challenge you’re facing requires you to be adaptable, or can you solve it with things that have worked for you before? That distinction is a very important distinction, and it’s very helpful for people to determine if they can solve this situation with old answers or if they need to develop and be open for new things to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Michiel Kruyt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

Author and academic Richard Rumelt explains how to develop strategies that aim to solve problems rather than simply state ambitions.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Richard Rumelt, Yuval Atsmon | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

I’ve learned that there are two kinds of mistakes in venture capital. There’s the mistake of commission, in which you invest in or go work for a company that fails. And then there’s the mistake of omission, in which you don’t invest in Google or don’t go to work at Facebook in 2005.

The longer you’re in this industry, the more you learn that the mistakes … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marc Andreessen | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Succeeding as a start-up is as hard as it’s ever been, because the same fundamental dynamic is in play. You’ve got some idea of why the world should change, but the world doesn’t want to. People are too busy to hear another pitch from another start-up. People are happy in their jobs and don’t want to leave for your start-up. People are happy with the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marc Andreessen | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Entrepreneurship

We are meaning-making creatures. We are quick to tell ourselves stories. And in those stories, we often cast ourselves as the hero and the other person as the villain because it’s an easy shortcut. It’s an easy trope, but it’s often not the full story.

Content: Quotation | Author: Amy Gallo | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

Weighted average and median P/E ratios rarely diverge significantly—and when they do, the gap soon closes.

Content: Article | Author: David Schwartz | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Market/Investment

If you base your strategy on analyzing the past, then you are implicitly making the assumption that the future will be identical to the past. Because it’s based on rigorous analysis—and you’ve been taught in business school that rigorous analysis is correct—then you will not be ready for the future to end up looking different than the past, and you’re more likely to stick with … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

New data highlights five things incumbent businesses could learn from venture capitalists and unicorns.

Content: Article | Authors: Jerome Königsfeld, Kai Vollhardt, Leo Leypoldt, Markus Berger-de León | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Venture Capital

Companies often shy away from the method because they fear it or believe it means “budgeting from zero.” In reality, it’s a structured process that can build a culture of cost management.

Content: Article | Authors: Carey Mignerey, Kyle Hawke, Shaun Callaghan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Accounting, Finance

In today’s world, strategy is relatively easy to replicate and capital is relatively easy to access. What gives you a real source of competitive advantage is your talent and culture.

Content: Quotation | Author: Mary Meaney | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Culture, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

While ESG is likely to evolve both in substance and name in the coming years, its underlying impulse is here to stay. Here’s how companies can take a more systematic and rewarding approach to ESG.

Content: Article | Authors: Dame Vivian Hunt, Donatela Bellone, Hamid Samandari, Lucy Pérez, Robin Nuttall | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Although resilience and adaptability are linked, they are different in important ways. Resilience often entails responding well to an external event, while adaptability moves us from enduring a challenge to thriving beyond it. We don’t just “bounce back” from difficult situations—we “bounce forward” into new realms, learning to be more adaptable as our circumstances evolve and change.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Aaron De Smet, Ashish Kothari, Jacqueline Brassey, Johanne Lavoie, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, Sasha Zolley | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Management

Empirical research reveals what it takes to generate value-creating growth today.

Content: Article | Authors: Chris Bradley, Nicholas Northcote, Rebecca Doherty, Tido Röder | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

If I were to lay out the requirements for a great leader, having a clear cultural aspiration and a plan to drive it through the organization would be really near the top of my list.

Content: Quotation | Author: Chris Gagnon | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Culture, Leadership, Organizational Behavior

The success of hallmark cultures is that they read one of these groups of [business] books that hung together with a consistent philosophy, and they really, really stuck with it. A little bit of best practice here, a little bit of best practice there will get you killed.

Content: Quotation | Author: Chris Gagnon | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Culture, Organizational Behavior

As we get into the [organizational] imperatives, you’ll see most of them are about people: who we are, how we show up, how we see ourselves as part of a larger organization, how we collaborate. How we make decisions, how we show up as talent, and how we use the talent we have.

Content: Quotation | Author: Elizabeth Mygatt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Every company has to include technology. Technology is there to enable people. But I’ll tell you, what’s really important is people. An organization is designed to organize people and their work and their efforts. Almost all the things that we discuss as keys or imperatives can be enabled by technology, but they’re designed to help people perform. At the heart of this thinking is humanism, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Chris Gagnon | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Organizational Behavior

Is your best talent hiding in plain sight? An internal talent marketplace helps match existing employees to open roles—in novel and sometimes unexpected ways.

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Schaninger, Bryan Hancock, Emily Field | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Human Resources