Purchased materials and services often make up 60 to 80 percent of a product’s cost. Companies that don’t invest in the purchasing team’s capabilities are throwing away value. Jack Welch once notoriously said that “engineers who can’t add, operators who can’t…
Strategists can challenge conventional wisdom and better prepare for uncertainty by analyzing the complex and not-so-obvious ways global trends interact in their industries. Predicting the future is arguably the most important and hardest task facing strategists. One way of loading the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…