Over the past two years, generative AI (gen AI) has been a rapidly evolving trend that has touched the lives of many around the globe. Which is why the design of these formidable systems must include experts from diverse backgrounds, says James Landay, a professor of computer science at Stanford…
Climate change is challenging the limits of traditional insurance by creating new risks and exacerbating old ones at an unprecedented scale. As weather events increase in frequency and severity, many businesses find themselves underinsured or unable to secure coverage. Arbol addresses these growing protection gaps with parametric insurance, which quickly…
Sector Variations in Small Business ProductivityAmerica's small businesses vary widely in productivity across different sectors. While U.S. MSMEs are on par with those in the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and Italy in many areas, they lag significantly in mining, transportation and storage, and administrative services. The productivity ratio of MSMEs…
Green-steel manufacturing is crucial for the steel industry and the planet, but decarbonizing the global steel production chain is a massive undertaking. Today, the global steel industry is responsible for 7 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Europe is likely to be the first region to decarbonize, with CO2…
Every business has a best owner, which may—or may not—be your company. But recognizing that it’s time for a separation (which we define as spin-offs, split-offs, carve-outs, and other sales of businesses in a company’s portfolio) and actually executing separations effectively are very different propositions. Successful companies not only understand…
As companies across the globe pursue decarbonization targets and the need for green power generation grows, 24/7 clean power purchase agreements (PPAs) are playing an increasingly important role. With their unique ability to provide constant green power, time-matched to demand, these next-level PPAs are helping to unlock investment in nascent…
New opportunities are coming for organizations to use procurement to gain a competitive edge and drive sustainability impact through innovation and strategic partnerships. However, the complexities of global supply chains and rapidly changing market conditions can make it hard to capture the available value. In this episode of McKinsey Talks…
Battery technology has evolved significantly in recent years. Thirty years ago, when the first lithium ion (Li-ion) cells were commercialized, they mainly included lithium cobalt oxide as cathode material. Numerous other options have emerged since that time. Today’s batteries, including those used in electric vehicles (EVs), generally rely on one…
Gilles Dellaert is the global head of Blackstone Credit and Insurance (BXCI), which was created to bring together Blackstone’s corporate credit, asset-based finance, and insurance groups. BXCI now manages more than $350 billion in assets, accounting for the bulk of Blackstone’s total credit assets and a substantial part of the…
Today’s business leaders recognize transformation as the courageous choice required to deliver an ambitious business agenda. As we reported earlier this year, companies pursue transformation to reset the business, venture into areas of greater ambition, deliver bold growth, enable operating-model change, build new and competitive capabilities, and evolve their culture…
From bustling urban centers to small towns across the United States, the economic power and business potential of Latino communities is immense. Today, 19 percent of the US population identifies as Latino or Hispanic. According to the US Census Bureau, Latinos are expected to comprise approximately 28 percent of the…
In this episode of McKinsey on Building Products, McKinsey partner Rikki Singh speaks with Paul Yacoubian, co-founder and CEO of Copy.ai. They explore how an AI-native company such as Copy.ai leverages product-led growth (PLG), the pivotal role of analytics in the company’s customer outreach strategy, and how start-ups can scale…
In just the past few years, a series of unprecedented and fast-moving threats have disrupted organizations. How companies, particularly financial institutions, respond to these complex risks has profound implications. The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on credit models, and social media has played a leading role in accelerating bank runs to…
Transit agencies in the United States are at an inflection point. Ridership—along with revenue generated from fares—remains, on average, significantly below prepandemic levels. Costs continue to rise as agencies (which manage state and local public-transit systems, including buses, subways, light rail, commuter rail, trolleys, and ferries) pay more to expand…
Mixed-use real estate developments and neighborhoods, where office, retail, and residential property coexist, were growing in popularity well before the COVID-19 pandemic. McKinsey’s research on how the pandemic affected demand for commercial real estate underscores how these areas contribute to resilience, better quality of life, and financial success. Cities with these…
The used-car market has faced unprecedented upheaval in recent years. From 2014 to 2024, prices increased by an average of 3 percent per year. The beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, followed by the supply shock, sent used-car prices soaring, rising by about 50 percent between second quarter 2020 and third…
A topic that matters more than ever, and yet is debated more than ever Sustainability matters now more than ever—the increasing need for an urgent step-up in action to meet key climate goals was a common refrain around COP29. Three illustrative facts were often cited: This is the first year…
The emergence of new technologies and geopolitical changes are disrupting industries around the world. Corporations are rethinking how to create value for their customers—whether they are serving other businesses (B2B), consumers (B2C), or both (B2B2C)—and how to rewire their business operations to focus on customer needs. Legacy automotive companies are…
The world’s largest companies increasingly recognize the risks and opportunities presented by nature and natural capital. This awareness is driving more businesses to set specific targets to address their impact on water, biodiversity, forests, and other dimensions of nature. The unprecedented decline of nature and biodiversity underscores the urgency of…
In today’s business landscape, organizations face unprecedented levels of change and complexity. Markets shift overnight, new technologies emerge daily, and customer expectations evolve rapidly. This volatile environment demands that organizations adapt quickly, innovate continuously, and respond decisively to new challenges and opportunities. Companies aiming for significant performance improvements may have tried…
Africa’s fintech landscape has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years, characterized by rapid growth and innovation. Despite significant headwinds, the market remains one of the most dynamic and promising in the world, with notable optimism among fintech leaders and investors. Key fintech players we interviewed indicated they were excited…
As the suite of technology tools at companies’ fingertips continues its exponential growth, so does the demand for technology’s role in business. Tech transformations are not singular events but rather a constant reality of corporate life. According to our latest McKinsey Global Survey of technology and business leaders, most companies are investing…
Throughout his 40-year career, Nathan Bostock has seen the financial services industry change in big ways—and has used these changes to his advantage to usher in the next era of banking. He has led multiple full-scale transformations across several companies, including during his tenure as CFO and CEO of Santander…
Like many industries, the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry is facing challenges on several fronts: volatile commodity markets driving higher cost inflation, geopolitical instability causing supply chain disruptions, competition for construction talent and labor in certain geographies such as North America, and increasing pressure to accelerate bringing…
The healthcare industry has been buffeted by a growing number of challenges over the past few years. This turbulence struck provider organizations in 2022, while payers were initially sheltered from the storm (Exhibit 1). But conditions became more difficult for payers in 2023, which has continued into this year, and…
Unexpected crises, volatility, and a generally accelerated pace of change have increasingly become the norm. But it doesn’t feel normal. For many, it feels stressful and exhausting. Think of all the very large disruptions on leaders’ agendas these days—widespread use of automation, artificial intelligence, and other technologies at work; geopolitical…
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) issued its standard number 239 (BCBS 239) nearly a dozen years ago in 2013, with the aim of strengthening banks’ risk management through improved risk data aggregation and internal risk reporting. Its binding compliance deadline for global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) was nearly…
In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey Global Publishing’s Raju Narisetti chats with Tony Blair, founder and executive chair of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, about his book, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century (Crown/Penguin Random House, September…
Global real estate development, which has never been simple, has in recent years become more complex. Building “green,” once a choice and a differentiator for developers, is increasingly the only way to satisfy new regulations, consumer preferences, and investor expectations. New technologies—many powered by recent advances in AI and generative…
In October 2024, more than 9,000 participants running the gamut of insurance industry players gathered for the annual ITC Vegas insurance conference. The hot topic of the conference, unsurprisingly, was the use of generative AI (gen AI) and its potential implications for the insurance industry. In this episode of the…
Healthcare organizations, especially health systems, have a large, untapped opportunity to use their clinical expertise and reputation to serve health media (medically validated, contextually relevant content, including advertising) to engage, support, and educate consumers. The health media trend is accelerating concurrently with healthcare organizations’ efforts to boost digital engagement with…
Companies often overestimate the impact of short-term changes in technology and underestimate the effect of long-term changes. This well-known dynamic is particularly relevant for generative AI (gen AI) in enterprise technology. Today’s many bold predictions about its impact on enterprise technology often focus on shorter-term horizons (with immediate focus on…
At the heart of virtually every large organization is a massive anchor slowing a business down: the tech debt found in legacy IT systems. Often built decades ago, these large systems form the technical backbone of companies and functions across almost every sector. As much as 70 percent of the…
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity.Is it time for a procurement (r)evolution? Mauro Erriquez: Dominique, thank you for being with us today. It’s amazing that we have an opportunity to talk about the future of procurement. Many of my clients are saying they have never seen such a…
For sennder, a leading European digital road freight forwarder, challenges have been catalysts for growth. Founded in 2015, the Berlin-based trucking company has rapidly transformed the European industry by digitalizing road logistics. Although sennder’s growth has been explosive, it hasn’t come without hurdles. However, thanks to a culture of learning,…
The Dutch labor market is strong and evolving: labor force participation is notably high, and unemployment levels are historically low. But ongoing trends, including an aging population and declining productivity growth, are putting the labor market under pressure. Recently, McKinsey projected that labor market tightness could triple by 2030 if…
Latin America’s grocery retailers are finally on firm ground again. After several volatile years—with grocers battling everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to inflation and rising joblessness—the sector showed signs of stabilizing in the first half of 2024, leading to increases in spending. Yet challenges persist. Our latest report finds four…
Over the past five years, nongrocery retailers in Europe have faced twin challenges: navigating fierce macroeconomic headwinds and a heightened competitive landscape while catering to increasingly selective consumers. On the first count, inflation-adjusted sales have yet to return to 2019 levels in all top European markets, and generalist marketplaces and…
The past few decades have not been easy for project deployment in metals and mining. Historically, the approach to project execution has been characterized by poor front-end project definition, misaligned incentives, constrained resources, and deeply ingrained legacy practices. Further complicating matters, the outbreak of COVID-19 created a whirlwind of volatility…
It’s been five years since the Business Roundtable, an association of more than 200 CEOs of leading US companies, redefined the purpose of a corporation as delivering value to all stakeholders—“our companies, our communities, and our country.” While the perception of stakeholder capitalism has evolved since then, the roundtable’s focus on…