Top 10 from the Quarterly | 2014

This year’s most popular articles from McKinsey Quarterly, which in 2014 marked 50 years as McKinsey’s flagship business publication

1. Why leadership-development programs fail

Sidestepping four common mistakes can help companies develop stronger and more capable leaders, save time and money, and boost morale. more

2. Change leader, change thyself

Anyone who pulls the organization in new directions must look inward as well as outward. more

3. Strategic principles for competing in the digital age

Digitization is rewriting the rules of competition, with incumbent companies most at risk of being left behind. Here are six critical decisions CEOs must make to address the strategic challenge posed by the digital revolution. more

4. Management intuition for the next 50 years

The collision of technological disruption, rapid emerging-markets growth, and widespread aging is upending long-held assumptions that underpin strategy setting, decision making, and management. more

5. Lead at your best

Five simple exercises can help you recognize, and start to shift, the mind-sets that limit your potential as a leader. more

6. Next frontiers for lean

Lean-production techniques have been revolutionizing operations for 50 years. Advances in technology, psychology, and analytics may make the next 50 even more exciting. more

7. Tapping the power of hidden influencers

A tool social scientists use to identify sex workers and drug users can help senior executives find the people most likely to catalyze—or sabotage—organizational-change efforts. more

8. The benefits—and limits—of decision models

Big data and models help overcome biases that cloud judgment, but many executive decisions also require bold action inspired by self-confidence. Here’s how to take charge in a clear-headed way. more

9. Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence

Before senior executives try to spread best practices, they should use seven techniques to clear out the negative behavior that stands in the way. A related video interview with one of the authors reveals companies that have used them to great effect. more

10. Are you ready for the resource revolution?

Meeting increasing global demand requires dramatically improving resource productivity. Yet technological advances mean companies have an extraordinary opportunity not only to meet that challenge but to spark the next industrial revolution as well. more

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