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Are you a great CEO, or just a good one? New research shows that the leaders who truly excel have a set of distinctive mindsets and practices. In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar and Scott Keller discuss the six dimensions that separate exceptional CEOs from the rest of the […]
Acquisitions and alliances are two pillars of growth strategy. But most businesses don’t treat the two as alternative mechanisms for attaining goals. Consequently, companies take over firms they should have collaborated with, and vice versa, and make a mess of both acquisitions and alliances. It’s easy to see why companies don’t weigh the relative merits […]
In a new analysis, we found that strong middle managers aren’t just nice to have for all the reasons we note; they are a business imperative. Organizations with top-performing managers yield multiple times the total shareholder returns (TSR) of those with average or below-average managers over a period of five years. In this article, we […]
Good one-on-one meetings between managers and their direct reports address the practical and personal needs of the employee, benefitting their performance, growth, and well-being, as well as the success of their team and the broader organization. However, since managers are typically the ones who run these meetings, the employee’s needs are often forgotten. Then it’s […]
CEOs want to know if they should act now—and, if so, how to start. Some may see an opportunity to leapfrog the competition by reimagining how humans get work done with generative AI applications at their side. Others may want to exercise caution, experimenting with a few use cases and learning more before making any […]
When so much in the world feels beyond our control, costs are to a large extent controllable. But cutting them to drive short-term savings is a mistake. When companies take a one-off approach to cost cutting, they often sacrifice some of their most important investments. If cost-cutting programs are implemented in haste, little (if any) […]
When faced with disruptions and downturns, many leaders and companies instinctively focus on cutting costs to maintain profitability. But some identify opportunities and then take thoughtful action to emerge from crisis even stronger. That means not only planning for worst-case scenarios and pressure-testing operational and financial health but also staying alert for ways to find […]
No matter how great your work, your colleagues, or your organization may be, problems are a part of everyday reality in every workplace. Mostly these problems are likely not of your own making. But you still have to deal with them or else suffer their consequences. Often when I talk about being a problem solver, […]
Bad decisions can often be traced back to the way the decisions were made–the alternatives were not clearly defined, the right information was not collected, the costs and benefits were not accurately weighed. But sometimes the fault lies not in the decision-making process but rather in the mind of the decision maker. The way the […]
I’m recently taking the online Stanford program Product Management: Accelerated. One of the lectures I found very helpful for product managers is about how we derive a product roadmap from company-level strategies and product strategies. Whether you’re a seasoned product manager or just starting out in the field, this article has something for you. Here we […]
CEOs are given the authority to lead by the rules of corporate governance. They gain additional influence and credibility by demonstrating competence. CEOs who achieve legitimacy have a higher level of trust and influence. This legitimacy will be gained by consistently demonstrating specific behaviors.
Many organizations embark on large-scale transformations, only to end with frustrated leaders and worse-than-expected long-term results. These efforts typically start with high aspirations and significant energy then lose an average of 42 percent of their expected value in the later phases of the transformation program, where the focus shifts to executing and sustaining change.1 While many […]
It’s during this middle stretch of your CEO tenure that the concentration and energy you applied to your objectives during your first years on the job are most likely to dissipate and fragment. Intellectually, the danger of such complacency is a simple concept to grasp. No one wants to be the prize fighter who wins […]
Through the State of Organizations Survey, conversations with CEOs and their teams, and the findings of recent McKinsey research, we have identified ten of the most important organizational shifts that businesses need to address today. These shifts are both challenging and harbingers of opportunity, depending on how organizations address them.
As the pandemic rewrote the rule book for coworking and office culture, new processes and untested systems allowed inefficiencies to creep in—inefficiencies that included meetings scheduled for the sake of unstructured discussion or even basic human interaction rather than for productivity. While interacting might be easier than ever, value-creating collaboration isn’t—and its quality seems to be deteriorating. […]
Leaders often suffer from “power poisoning” and fixate on their own needs and ambitions. A perspective swap — where, for example, a CEO works as a customer service representative for a day, or an HR representative works in sales for a week — can help detox leaders from blind spots and distorted views of what’s […]
More than 1,000 new business books are released each month in the United States alone. The good ones represent original contributions to theory and practice or provide meaningful extensions or applications of those theories and practices. The others tend to present recycled and superficial treatments of those original contributions. So how can you ensure not […]
With interest rates rising in real terms, the value of growth strategies has declined. Managers need to look carefully at where they allocate capital, focusing more on investing in productivity. Nor should they treat strategy-making as a periodic exercise but rather as a dynamic, continuous process
For better or worse, in today’s world everyone is a brand. Whether you’re applying for a job, asking for a promotion, or writing a dating profile, your success will depend on getting others to recognize your value. So you need to get comfortable marketing yourself. In this article a branding thought leader and a professional […]
Only 35% of projects today are completed successfully. One reason for this disappointing rate is the low level of maturity of technologies available for project management. This is about to change. Researchers, startups, and innovating organizations, are beginning to apply AI, machine learning, and other advanced technologies to project management, and by 2030 the field […]
With interest rates rising in real terms, the value of growth strategies has declined. Managers need to look carefully at where they allocate capital, focusing more on investing in productivity. Nor should they treat strategy-making as a periodic exercise but rather as a dynamic, continuous process
A strategy focused on improving the experience of existing customers can deliver breakthrough growth for incumbent companies—often more than double that of their industry peers.
The road to becoming CEO is a difficult ascent for even the most seasoned leaders. While there is no way to guarantee success, if you’re a senior executive who aspires to the top job, the following advice will greatly increase your odds: Take a gut check of your motivations and expectations. Elevate your perspective while […]
Why is it so difficult for established companies to pull off the new growth that business model innovation can bring? Here’s why: They don’t understand their current business model well enough to know if it would suit a new opportunity or hinder it, and they don’t know how to build a new model when they […]
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