Our top ten insights of 2019

January 3, 2020The ten most popular McKinsey.com pieces of the last year, taken from the hundreds of articles, reports, blog posts, and podcasts that we published in 2019, reflect the hopes and anxieties of business leaders in every sector: hope for a better meeting, a better mindset, a more agile organization; anxiety over the future of work in America, globalization, the energy transition, blockchain, and more.

Read on for the full list and stay tuned for 2020.

1. Want a better decision? Plan a better meeting

How can senior managers get better, faster business decisions from meetings? Here are the three questions they should ask with every calendar invitation.

2. Blockchain’s Occam problem

Where is blockchain headed? This piece offers a hard-nosed look at the blockchain ecosystem as doubts have emerged about the technology’s true potential.

3. Globalization in transition: The future of trade and value chains

Debates about tariffs have obscured how globalization has changed. Trade intensity is down, and the flow of services and data play a more important role that isn’t fully captured by how we measure economic growth.

4. The future of work in America: People and places, today and tomorrow

McKinsey Global Institute’s blockbuster report looks at who will be most affected by emerging workforce shifts and how policymakers can choose to create more inclusive growth.

5. The mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs

A guide to how the best CEOs think and act, based on our proprietary performance database and decades of firsthand experience counseling thousands of CEOs.

6. The journey to an agile organization

Navigating an organization to an agile operating model isn’t easy. This guide describes every element of the transformation that needs to occur.

7. How to master the seven-step problem-solving process

This podcast interview explores how leaders can apply structured problem solving to work through the most complex questions we face in any sector.

8. Global Energy Perspective 2019

What exactly is the energy transition, and what will it look like in the coming decades? This is an essential piece about a sector that’s changing rapidly and how those changes will transform many aspects of our lives.

9. What executives are reading in 2019

On top of everything else they do, Meg Whitman, Doug McMillon, Salman Khan, and other CEOs share what they’re reading for pleasure and self-improvement.

10. The platform play: How to operate like a tech company

Any company can operate like a tech company – if its IT department can become an enabler and driver of continuous innovation and adaptation.