Public Sector

Education for everyone: An interview with Sal Khan

September 2013—Online learning is revolutionizing access to education. As Khan Academy founder Sal Khan explains, it may also revolutionize how organizations find the workers they need.more

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Education for entrepreneurship: An interview with Tim Draper

September 2013—Can entrepreneurship be taught? Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper believes it can and has established the Draper University of Heroes to do just that.more

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How to attract US women to the sciences

September 2013—Compared with their counterparts elsewhere, American women shun science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. What should be done?more

A cost curve to improve road safety

September 2013—By more fully evaluating available countermeasures, stakeholders can focus on the most effective ones.more

How to make a city great

September 2013—By 2030, 60 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. That could mean great things for economic growth—if the cities handle their expansion wisely. Here’s how.more

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Enlisting productivity to reinforce European defense

August 2013—In an era of fiscal restraint, the defense future of Europe will depend on how well it can bring productivity into the equation.more

Innovative development financing

August 2013—How can more resources be applied toward development in the world’s poorest countries? Recent research has pointed to some promising ideas.more

The US growth opportunity in shale oil and gas

August 2013—McKinsey partner Scott Nyquist discusses the role of shale oil and gas in boosting US oil production and examines the environmental concerns that must be addressed.more

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Game changers: Five opportunities for US growth and renewal

July 2013—Five catalysts can reignite the US economy—opportunities in energy, trade, technology, infrastructure, and talent development can add hundreds of billions of dollars to annual GDP and create millions of new jobs by 2020.more

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Ten quick steps to unlocking tax-revenue collection in rapidly growing markets

July 2013—Fast-growing economies that don’t strengthen their tax administrations miss a chance to create long-term fiscal stability. Some initiatives can deliver positive results within a year.more

Building the leadership bench: Developing a talent pipeline for the Senior Executive Service

This report outlines the four phases of a cohesive SES pipeline-development strategy and case studies of agencies that excel in their execution of one or more of these phases.

• Download the report (PDF–447 KB)

How to make a city great

May 2013–What does it take to advance a city's economic, environmental, and social performance? Our research and interviews with global city leaders make clear that there is no single path. Rather successful leaders must find the balance between three critical areas: smart growth, doing more with less, and winning support for change.

• Download the report (PDF–2.07 MB)

Defense outlook 2015: A global survey of defense-industry executives

April 2013—Today's leading defense executives offer their insights.more

Managing a downturn: How the US defense industry can learn from its past

April 2013—Companies that assertively managed their portfolio thrived in the last budget downturn. The same strategy will work again today, but companies must be mindful of the new context.more

Preserving combat power when defense budgets are falling

April 2013—Defense ministries can cope with austerity. Here's how.more

Risk-based resource allocation

February 2013–Government is increasingly called on to protect the public from harm and to shield society and the economy from volatility, but to do so as efficiently as possible. Adopting good practices in risk-based resource allocation is a powerful way for regulators and enforcement agencies to meet their missions efficiently and effectively.

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Education to employment

December 2012–Young people can’t find jobs. Yet employers can’t find people with the right entry-level skills. How to close this gap?

• Read more on the McKinsey on Society Web site

Delivery 2.0: The new challenge for governments

October 2012–Governments globally are under pressure to deliver better outcomes for citizens, faster, and with less money. Drawing on case examples from around the world, this article shows how well designed and executed delivery programs can meet the challenge and identifies seven best practices.

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Unleashing government’s ‘innovation mojo’: An interview with the US chief technology officer

June 2012—Todd Park explains how he has partnered technology with open-data initiatives to tap into the many talented innovators and entrepreneurs across the government.more

Mission-driven mobility

February 2012–A new report from McKinsey and the Partnership for Public Service examines mobility within the US federal government's Senior Executive Service.

• Download the report (PDF–1.1 MB)

Innovation in government: Indonesia and Colombia

February 2012—To become more responsive and effective, governments are experimenting with the way they monitor services (Indonesia) and work with the private sector to expand the economy (Colombia).more

Strengthening risk management in the US Public Sector

May 2011–Discusses the barriers to risk management in the US public sector and presents five recommendations to help government institutions overcome those barriers and strengthen their risk management to better prevent, detect, and mitigate instances of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.

• Download the report (PDF–778 KB)

McKinsey on Government: Change Under Pressure

All over the world, governments are facing enormous fiscal challenges—and embarking upon a crash program of doing more with less. This edition of McKinsey on Government is about how governments can change under pressure.more

Summit on Public Sector Productivity

March 2011–Summit held in Washington, DC on March 15, 2011, focusing on two important questions governments around the world face.more

Making it work in government: Perspectives on transforming performance in the public sector

July 2010–This report, developed in collaboration with the Center for American Progress,  highlights our initial findings in three areas that we know to be particularly critical to efficiency and effectiveness: performance management, talent management, and IT.

• Download the report (PDF–2.96 MB)

Change under pressure

Insights based on our thinking and that of experts in the field, drawing on real examples from around the world. more

Driving federal performance

October 2009–The first survey to benchmark public sector management practices relative to the private sector shows federal leaders have the opportunity to prioritize management practices to engage the workforce more fully, strengthen talent management, and improve accountability.

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The road to improved compliance

September 2009–What drives performance in tax administrations? In-depth research identifies a set of best practices to help yield higher tax revenues—a total of $86 billion additional dollars for the countries in this study—simply through management and operational changes.

• Download the report (PDF–2.11 MB)