Capital Excellence

How We Help Clients

We help organizations deploy best-in-class thinking for maximum impact across their capital projects portfolios and project delivery value chain.

Capital portfolios often fail to align overall strategy with project-specific capital allocation, resulting in projects that lack mature business cases and do not meet their cost of capital.

Traditional capital productivity approaches do not adequately connect boardroom strategies with frontline execution, hindering value creation and efficient project delivery across various asset classes.

Capital Excellence approaches utilize a rigorous, holistic methodology enhanced by digital and agile techniques to improve returns and program performance. Our global network of experts collaborates with industry leaders to optimize portfolios and transform project development. By integrating advanced analytics and capability building, we drive a capital transformation journey that reduces risks, saves money, accelerates progress, increases returns, and improves overall performance.

What we do

As pressure grows to build complex projects faster, better, and more sustainably in rapidly shifting economies, relying on previous experience is no longer enough to guarantee successful project delivery. Our work often begins with a rapid assessment, powered by Capital Analytics, to provide our clients with an objective, fact-based view of strengths, opportunities, and the size of the value at stake.

Capital strategy and portfolio optimization

We partner with organizations to define strategic direction, optimize capital spend, and build enterprise-wide capex capabilities, including designing digital transformations.

Project development

We identify and evaluate early stage projects and apply strategic levers to improve project business cases significantly. We also optimize design, procurement, and the critical enablers—organization, culture, capabilities, risk, contracting, digital and analytics—to realize the full potential of the project.

Project delivery

We help deliver projects through a disciplined execution rhythm to accelerate schedules, improve safety outcomes, maintain quality, and reduce costs. This end-to-end value assurance and optimization support, tailored to major projects, can be further enhanced by full-time support from McKinsey experts embedded in the leadership team.

Capital Analytics

With Capital Analytics, we create a step change in capital project performance through analytics-driven insights.

How we do it

Bringing together an ecosystem of data, analytics, and expertise, we provide actionable insights that lead to successful portfolio optimization and project delivery. We use a people-centered and technology-enabled approach for certainty of outcomes.

Analytics and technology

Applying analytics and technology is core to our approach, changing the way we help clients deliver projects. We combine proprietary solutions like Project Delivery Navigator and Production System Improvement with advanced analytics through Capital Analytics, and create partnerships with leading technology providers. This ecosystem of innovators allows us to deliver leading-edge solutions that support capital performance by improving project management, identifying project complexities, and predicting outcomes.

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Capability building

Maintaining capital performance requires the right mix of team skills to sustain the impact of transformations in the long term. In addition to ongoing coaching throughout projects, we help clients embed new capabilities with McKinsey Academy’s Capital Excellence program, and build digital skills through our proprietary education and external partnerships.

Explore McKinsey Academy

Examples of our work

Getting smart about capital spending

An energy company transforms how it plans capital projects, freeing up billions to enter new markets.

An engineering and construction giant reignites profitable growth

Better strategy and a strong leadership pipeline unlock growth, boost revenues, and safeguard margins.

Accelerating cell manufacturing readiness with generative scheduling

Advanced analytics shaved more than six weeks off a $4 billion cell manufacturing facility project, unlocking earlier production and significant savings.