McKinsey Center for Business Technology
The McKinsey Center for Business Technology brings the latest insights on business technology topics to top management teams to help them create value and competitive advantage. The Center is led by senior practitioners from our Business Technology Practice, our industry practices, and the McKinsey Global Institute, our firm's economic think-tank.
While most senior executives believe that technology is increasingly critical to performance, many still struggle to integrate technology into the corporate agenda. We help CxOs understand technology's strategic and tactical implications, and build it into the c-suite and boardroom agenda.
Critical technology topics
Five topics are at the top of our clients' agendas, and we are exploring how they drive value creation:
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Big data and advanced analytics—The sheer volume of data generated today can seem overwhelming. But the data explosion has been matched by a hike in the analytical power that can turn it into (very granular) business indicators. Aggregating, analyzing, and acting on these large data sets will become a key competitive advantage. It will underpin productivity growth and innovation and require active leadership from executive teams to shepherd organizations through transformational change. Our article, "Making data analytics work: Three key challenges," explains how “big data” and analytics are helping improve businesses.
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Digital multichannel—Companies now must grapple with a diverse set of tech-enabled channels through which they can engage customers in sales, service, and support. Different customers will use different channels at different times, so CEOs must understand how to meet these expectations.
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Cloud computing—Taking advantage of remotely stored data and applications lets companies be more flexible with their infrastructure. This can have a dramatic effect on cost, but it can do more. Cutting-edge companies use the cloud to deliver products and services, thereby reshaping their business. It is vital to understand not just how to capitalize on the cloud's flexibility for processes and the value proposition, but also how to implement it without jeopardizing the business.
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Mobile technology—Businesses are only beginning to see the impact of new mobile devices and always-on connections. The boom in devices and networks means cars can connect to car insurers, power meters to energy companies, customers to vendors, and employees to each other in radically new ways.
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Technology-enabled innovation—Our research shows that companies that use technology as a core part of their innovation processes have created a measurable and sustainable advantage over their competitors. Executives must understand how technology affects the innovation process, and how they must adapt leadership, structure, and talent to take advantage of tech-enabled innovation.