McKinsey Center for
Business Technology
Technology can spur top-line growth and create new business models. It is therefore critical that top-management teams focus their attention on how technology will affect their business and how it can be used to create competitive advantage.
The McKinsey Center for Business Technology (MCBT) brings the latest thinking and insights on business technology topics to CxOs. The Center is led by senior practitioners from McKinsey’s Business Technology Practice, our industry practices, and the McKinsey Global Institute, who turn research on technology trends into distinctive insights that help companies create value.
Critical technology topics
Five topics are at the top of our clients' agendas, and we are exploring how they drive value creation:
- Big data—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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.