McKinsey & Company

The sporting goods industry faced a difficult environment in 2024. Softer growth prospects, persistent inflation, and cautious consumer spending all tested companies’ resilience. Despite these hurdles, the industry managed to sustain a growth rate of 7 percent a year from 2021 to 2024 (Exhibit 1). The growth outlook for 2024 to 2029 is projected at a slightly more modest 6 percent a year, driven by a slowdown in the Asia–Pacific,…

The automotive industry—including OEMs of passenger cars and trucks, suppliers, and downstream players such as aftermarket or financing providers—is a major part of Europe’s economy. These players collectively account for 7 percent of Europe’s GDP, providing about 13.8 million direct and indirect jobs. In 2019, the European Union dominated the global automotive market, hosting ten of the top 20 suppliers and four of the top ten OEMs by revenue. Yet…

The invention of the automobile in the late 1800s soon attracted entrepreneurs. Car manufacturers sprung up across the world, with the number in the United States increasing from 30 in 1899 to about 500 by 1910. The early industry’s hallmark was rapid and constant innovation, which included the introduction of V-8 engines, the replacement of hand cranks with electric starters, and the addition of folding tops for weather protection. By…

Over the past few years, our analysis shows that the engineering and construction (E&C) industry has grown steadily by about 5 percent per annum. This number is expected to accelerate to 6 to 7 percent by 2030 in response to a confluence of tailwinds, including continued growth in emerging markets, such as Asia and the Middle East; government infrastructure programs and megaprojects in Europe and North America; pent-up demand for…

Services drive the global economy. They make up 75 percent of real gross value-added activity in high-income countries and 63 percent of the same measure in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Globally, value-added trade in services now exceeds trade in goods, and services are growing faster than the total world economy. Yet economic development efforts in LMICs often still focus on manufacturing and while that may be understandable—it was the…

NEWARK/BARCELONA – The effects of falling birth rates and rising life expectancy are increasingly evident in advanced economies like Germany, Italy, and Japan. Labor markets are tightening, worker shortages are worsening, and families are struggling to find care for aging parents. In some areas, declining student numbers are forcing schools to shut down.South Korea offers a stark example. In 2023, as the country’s total fertility rate plummeted to just 0.7…

McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) found that as of 2020, about 61% of the global population were unable to pay for their basic daily needs and begin to save. Building on the work of development economists, we established the “empowerment line” to measure progress towards a world where everyone’s essential needs are met.Higher than the international poverty line, the empowerment line varies greatly from country to country. In the lowest income…

US consumers are taking an increasingly active role in their health, seeking information from a variety of sources and considering new engagement models. As this trend continues, healthcare organizations must recognize that many of the assumptions that they have made about healthcare consumers no longer hold true. Addressing these changed expectations and interests can unlock substantial opportunity to engage consumers across their healthcare journeys more effectively and improve business results.It’s…

In 2013, SQM, based in Santiago, Chile, became the first mining company to adapt the principles of lean management to the complexities of extracting minerals in some of the world’s most challenging locations. Three years into the company’s transformation, McKinsey spoke with three senior SQM executives about the organization’s progress—especially the lasting benefits from changing the way people lead. Now, more than ten years after SQM’s journey began, leaders at…

Can a steel company build the infrastructure for the rapidly growing data center business? Nucor CEO Leon Topalian thinks so. Through a series of recent acquisitions, the company aims to offer customers made-to-order data center buildings with most of the components they require—cooling systems, overhead doors, equipment racks, and more—not just the steel that goes into them. That’s just one of the many opportunities Nucor is pursuing. With a history…

This is a special, bonus episode of The McKinsey Podcast. McKinsey Partner Ferry Grijpink joined McKinsey Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro to share some immediate takeaways from the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) event in Barcelona.The McKinsey Podcast is hosted by Roberta Fusaro and Lucia Rahilly. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length. Roberta Fusaro: What’s the mood in Barcelona? Ferry Grijpink: On the one hand, it’s very exciting. We…

Senior housing—the spectrum of residential solutions aimed at people over age 65—is a sector associated with many needs. By 2050, the world is expected to have 1.6 billion people in this age cohort, more than double the number in 2021. Due to the rising prevalence of chronic illnesses among the elderly, it is likely that less than half of them will perceive themselves as being in good physical, mental, and…

Although there is meaningful momentum, the world is not on track to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions in line with the Paris Agreement’s goals. Despite numerous net-zero commitments from countries and companies, and an increase in climate-related investments, global CO2 emissions are far from on track to reach net-zero by 2050. As the world considers how to meet climate goals in the aggregate, national decision makers will need a comprehensive…

A sleek, metallic car with a glass rooftop is depicted in a 3D image against a gray backdrop, giving off a futuristic vibe. Self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles (AVs), have zoomed around our popular imaginations for decades. In recent years, films and television shows such as WALL-E and Silicon Valley have poked fun at early versions of self-driving cars—and even further back, in the 1980s series Knight Rider, a retro…

Since the early 17th century, New York has been a global hub for the flow of goods, capital, people, and ideas. It has experienced constant economic transformation, dominating first in the fur trade, then in shipping, sugar refinement, machine tools, the garment trade, business services, and finance. Through its evolution, New York has grown not only as a center of innovation but also as a catalyst for progress around the…

In this episode of Eureka!, a McKinsey podcast on innovation in life sciences R&D, hosts Navraj Nagra and Alex Devereson speak to Kim Branson, senior vice president and global head of AI and machine learning at GSK. They discuss how these emerging technologies are being used to potentially reshape how drugs are developed and about the complexities AI and machine learning introduce in data management, cross-functional collaboration, and responsible innovation.…

Trucking is a significant source of emissions. Given that transportation is the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, with medium- and heavy-duty trucks accounting for about a quarter of these, transitioning fleets to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) has emerged as an urgent priority. McKinsey’s recent survey of more than 200 US trucking fleets found that while two-thirds are committed to decarbonization and over half are piloting ZEVs,…

At Davos 2025, the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, Shelley Stewart III, senior partner at McKinsey, and Angela F. Williams, president and CEO of United Way Worldwide, sat down to discuss some of the key themes of the conference. The conversation explored investments in people, collaboration, AI and technology, and how United Way Worldwide is thinking about these themes in serving communities. Their discussion also highlights the…

Workplaces are full of talented, educated, and hardworking women. Many are caught off guard when, several years into their careers, they see that they are falling behind their peers, and they can’t put a finger on exactly how or why. Women, after all, are doing everything they can to prepare themselves for successful careers. As early as kindergarten, girls on average outperform boys across all disciplines, including math. Women in…

By Becca Coggins, Christina Adams, and Kari AlldredgeIn the first quarter of 2025, US consumers reported feeling nearly as optimistic as they did at the end of the previous year. This optimism was buoyed by a robust economy with low unemployment, steady job growth, and stable inflation. However, for US consumers across income groups and generations, spending intentions were down across several discretionary categories. Unlike in early 2024 (when consumers carried their…

Telecom operators have long provided the infrastructure to power communication and connect people. Now they are poised to take on a new role: building the AI infrastructure that enables enterprises, governments, and consumers to unlock AI’s full potential. But finding the sweet spot to capture meaningful revenue and renewed success will require speed and precision amid complex market dynamics, uncertain demand, and significant competitive headwinds. Delays or missteps may heighten…

After a prolonged period of disruption spurred by new technologies, new competitors, rapidly evolving customer demands, and dwindling opportunities in the B2C space, the telecom industry is now in a position to catalyze rapid B2B growth. McKinsey’s latest survey of decision makers across industries and geographies found that more than half of companies are planning to increase telecommunications and technology spending this year as organizations rush to embrace artificial intelligence…

As telecommunications companies employ better AI and other analytics tools to increase the resolution of their view into customer satisfaction, they’re quickly reaching the point where they can be more precise about their capital allocations to efficiently expand and improve the network. By building on telcos’ recent advances in data and AI (such as data digital twins and a more robust cloud IT infrastructure) that provide clearer insights into how…

Banking has had a couple of very good years—the best, in fact, since the global financial crisis of 2007–09. Yet to some, the industry’s outlook seems less buoyant than recent profitability might suggest. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey Senior Partners Klaus Dallerup and Pradip Patiath speak with McKinsey Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about McKinsey’s latest global banking annual review, breaking down the sources of skepticism, the risks and…

Brazil’s economic sentiment has taken a hit. Overall, consumers are more pessimistic about the state of Brazil’s economy than they were last year or even last quarter. At first glance, this shift seems counterintuitive given the country’s robust economic landscape. Unemployment has fallen to 6.2 percent, almost the lowest level on record, and GDP is hovering at around 3 percent. However, this positive momentum is overshadowed by persistent inflation, at…

Telecommunication operators have set ambitious targets to decarbonize their emissions footprint, but so far most have gone after the low-hanging fruit. Some have made progress on emissions from their operations (Scope 1) and those from the energy they use (Scope 2). However, few have squarely taken on the much more challenging emissions from their value chain (Scope 3), which account for the majority of their carbon footprint. The challenge is…

In 2024, chief technology officers (CTOs) at consumer companies grappled with the challenges—and embraced the opportunities—of the evolving technology landscape. Learning to use and extract value from AI, modernizing legacy tech systems, meeting ever higher consumer expectations, and complying with digital-trust legislation were all top of mind for these leaders. In the year to come, these issues will become only more pressing. To stay ahead of the challenges, consumer CTOs—or…

Forward-thinking organizations understand that talent management is a critical component of business success. S&P 500 companies that excel at maximizing their return on talent generate an astonishing 300 percent more revenue per employee compared with the median firm, McKinsey research shows. In many cases, these top performers are using strategic workforce planning (SWP) to stay ahead in the talent race, treating talent with the same rigor as managing their financial…

At a glance Diverging work experience patterns drive a “work-experience pay gap” that makes up nearly 80 percent of the total gender pay gap, equal to 27 cents on the dollar among US professional workers. Women tend to build less human capital through work experience than men who start in the same occupations, as seen in the tens of thousands of career trajectories we analyze. Over a 30-year career, the…

President Donald Trump took office on January 20 amid a flurry of executive orders focusing on multiple issues—many with significant economic implications. Notable instructions signed off by the returning president include measures to deport illegal migrants, an “America First” trade policy, relaxation of energy- and climate-related policies, and various orders addressing the development of artificial intelligence.On February 1, the US president announced a 25% import tax on goods from North…

The world looks quite different from when Frank Mars started selling candy out of his Tacoma, Washington, kitchen in 1911. Today the family-owned business is driven by what consumers want and prioritize. The company’s Food & Nutrition segment is focused on making food that is not just tasty but also convenient and healthy. In a recent conversation between McKinsey partner Biljana Cvetanovski and Shaid Shah, Mars Food & Nutrition global…

Today’s environment is giving US manufacturers even more reasons to reassess their footprint strategies. For some, localization of production may now seem increasingly attractive—particularly amid rising volatility in tariff and trade policy, evolving incentives for domestic manufacturing, and realigning global trade corridors (Exhibit 1). Manufacturers know, however, that building new factories—and doing so quickly—can be incredibly complex. More worrisome is that in many organizations, particularly in the United States, factory-building skills…

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.How is the procurement function changing? Roman Belotserkovskiy: The role of the procurement organization and the position of procurement leader have been elevated to a much more visible and impactful position across most companies, in almost every industry. Jennifer Spaulding Schmidt: Right now what we’re seeing is procurement is involved very early on, scoping and shaping the demands of the business, and then…

Will generative AI live up to its hype? On this episode of At the Edge, tech visionaries Navin Chaddha, managing partner at Mayfield Fund; Kiran Prasad, CEO and cofounder of Big Basin Labs; and Naba Banerjee, McKinsey senior adviser and former director of trust and operations at Airbnb, join guest host and McKinsey Senior Partner Brian Gregg. They talk about the inevitability of an AI-supported world and ways businesses can…

After a period of exceptional profits, commodity trading markets are starting to normalize, causing industry-wide margins to stagnate or even recede. Our research shows commodity traders generated more than $100 billion EBIT in 2023, and 2024 earnings indicate industry value pools decreased by more than 30 percent year over year, with 2025 shaping up to look much the same. During the boom years of 2022 and 2023, higher volatility spurred…

After six years, the Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) has expanded from 16 to 189 Lighthouses, representing factory, sustainability, and end-to-end value chain categories across 33 countries and 35 subsectors—four times greater than the number of subsectors in 2018 (Exhibit 1). The latest 36 Lighthouses—awarded in October 2024 and January 2025—have not only followed the playbook but are continuing to innovate. They illuminate three leading-edge lessons: They are tackling the digital…

An organization’s culture—or the common set of behaviors, mindsets, and beliefs that shape how people work and interact—is a driving force for its success. In companies with strong cultures, employees at all levels understand the business’s mission and purpose, how decisions are made, how performance is measured, and individuals’ roles in achieving critical organizational objectives. It’s always surprising, then, when culture is overlooked in discussions about M&A. Typically, the focus…

Among oil and gas majors, TotalEnergies stands alone in its plans to shift a fifth of its business to renewable-led integrated power by 2030. It’s a tightrope walk for the company’s long-time CEO Patrick Pouyanné—essentially a strategy that’s not “enough oil and gas” for traditional investors nor “enough renewables” for green ones. But after a decade in charge, the Frenchman is thinking about his legacy and remains confident his is…

The industry overview The consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) industry has historically outperformed most other industries, thanks to high growth and consistent margins. But since 2012, the formula has broken down. Several factors, including inflation (which affects both consumer spending and corporate cost), market saturation, intense competition, changing consumer tastes and behaviors, and a fragmented consumer base have presented challenges for growth. Additional headwinds include climate change, which affects key ingredients, including cocoa.…

The industry overview M &A activity in the global energy and materials (GEM) sector remained muted in 2024. The number of deals increased about 12 percent, and deal value grew from $722 billion in 2022 to $808 billion in 2024, consistent with 2023 figures. Deal value in 2024 was still 14 percent lower than it was in 2021 (in nominal terms). The Americas region was the major driver of deal…