m.v@epictranslations.com

Perhaps as early as 2016, China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest market for premium cars. Multinationals currently dominate it in China, but they must now adjust to a market where consumers are becoming more sophisticated than previous generations of buyers, who cared primarily about social status. The reason for the change, in part, […]

An experienced combat commander and leading expert on training and doctrine assesses recent military history and its implications for the future. Major General Herbert Raymond (H. R.) McMaster is the commander of the US Army Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia. A facility for military training, doctrine, and leadership development, the center works with

Emerging technologies are poised to personalize the consumer experience radically—in real time and almost everywhere. It’s not too early to prepare. Digital marketing is about to enter more challenging territory. Building on the vast increase in consumer power brought on by the digital age, marketing is headed toward being on demand—not just always “on,” but also always

As the strategic landscape shifts, an economic-scenario approach can help defense organizations grapple with uncertainty. The art of strategy, in defense as elsewhere, involves understanding possible futures to inform present decisions. Change, volatility, and uncertainty are perennial challenges to the defense strategist and are likely to increase in the coming years. Formulating strategy in these conditions

The growth of cities in emerging markets is driving the most significant economic transformation in history. The McKinsey Global Institute’s new iPad app, Urban World, offers a sense of how economic power will move as this urban expansion takes place. The app offers previously unavailable data from a proprietary MGI database of more than 2,600 cities

Many companies don’t have one. Here’s how to get started.   The payoff from joining the big-data and advanced-analytics management revolution is no longer in doubt. The tally of successful case studies continues to build, reinforcing broader research suggesting that when companies inject data and analytics deep into their operations, they can deliver productivity and profit

Senior executives will better balance people and priorities by embracing the paradoxes of organizational life. I often ask business leaders three simple questions. What are your company’s ten most exciting value-creation opportunities? Who are your ten best people? How many of your ten best people are working on your ten most exciting opportunities? It’s a rough

Big data could transform the health-care sector, but the industry must undergo fundamental changes before stakeholders can capture its full value. A big-data revolution is under way in health care. Start with the vastly increased supply of information. Over the last decade, pharmaceutical companies have been aggregating years of research and development data into medical databases,

IT and business executives need to apply a risk-management approach that balances economic value against risks. The use of highly scaled, shared, and automated IT platforms—known as cloud computing—is growing rapidly. Adopters are driven by the prospects of increasing agility and gaining access to more computing resources for less money. Large institutions are building and managing

The single-largest business opportunity in Africa will be its rising consumer market. A McKinsey report, one of the first of its kind, offers a detailed profile of African consumers, including their demographics, behavior, and needs. By now, most investors and businesses know about the tremendous potential of Africa—the world’s second-fastest-growing region, topped only by emerging Asia.

To get products to customers in emerging markets, global manufacturers need strategies for navigating both the traditional and the modern retail landscapes. In emerging markets the world over, multinationals struggling to get their products to consumers confront a bewildering kaleidoscope of strategic and operational challenges. At one extreme, they must grapple with traditional retailers: the chaotic

Companies whose social investments focus on women in developing economies help not only the recipients but also themselves. Few companies make social investments specifically aimed at empowering women in developing economies, but we believe that supporting this goal is good business and good practice for all companies. In the course of our work, we’ve uncovered a startlingly

A rebound signals opportunity—and a need for flexibility as the market evolves. While the private-equity business remains in the doldrums in much of the world, the Asia–Pacific region stands out as an exception. A recent McKinsey report, Private equity Asia–Pacific: Is the boom back?, shows that in 2011, Asia was the world’s only major region where these

Montreal’s M0851 leather goods stores uses its own cultivated identity to sell its ‘slow fashions’ Frédéric Mamarbachi, founder and creator of the brand M0851, is as excited as a kid in an ice cream store when he looks at three-dimensional renderings for his next leather-goods store on a computer screen. With a glass façade, black walls

About one-third of early buyers in Japan say their next car may not be an electric vehicle. Companies should heed their complaints. If electric vehicles (EVs) are to develop from a niche into a mass market, car makers should learn from early adopters who say they may not buy one again. Our recent research on such consumers in