2015

Much has been written over the years about the digital divide and the Americans who remain offline, but now but now that technology has penetrated so widely, a different dynamic is taking hold. The gap between the digital “haves” and “have-mores” increasingly defines competition across the US economy, writes James Manyika on LinkedIn.

Organizations that manage the transition to a more highly automated business model can build strong advantages, write Michael Chui, James Manyika, and Mehdi Miremadi in Harvard Business Review.

Women have won five presidential elections in Latin America—an impressive feat. Yet much more still needs to be done to advance women's equality in the region. The economic benefits alone would be huge—by our calculations more than $1 trillion over the next decade. At a time when many Latin American economies are struggling, that’s too good a dividend to pass up, write Andres Cadena and Anu Madgavkar in Americas Quarterly.

A paradox of Sub-Saharan Africa’s rapid economic expansion is the fact that the region’s most sophisticated economy seems not to be part of it. Since 2008, South Africa has recorded average annual GDP growth of just 1.8 percent. The International Monetary Fund expects output in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa to grow at a rate of close to 5 percent next year, but South Africa is projected to manage little more than 1 percent growth. South Africa needs to reclaim the economic initiative, by—literally—building the Africa of the future, write Acha Leke and Michael Katz in Project Syndicate.

There’s a palpable feeling in the air that these are not ordinary times. The changes currently brewing will be sweeping rather than incremental as technology alters the structure of companies and the future of work. Five issues provide some context and touchstones for business leaders and policy makers to consider as they shape their responses, writes James Manyika on LinkedIn.

The high cost of gender inequality has been documented extensively. But a new study by the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that it is even higher than previously thought—with far-reaching consequences, write Laura Tyson and Anu Madgavkar in Project Syndicate.

The global economy is not working properly. This column argues that to overcome suboptimal results, global aggregate demand must be expanded, the gap between excessively large pools of capital and huge unmet infrastructure needs must be bridged, and finally, the distributional downside of rapid technological advances and global integration must be addressed. Change will come only when a global vision is put forth, coupled with political will, write Michael Spence, Danny Leipziger, James Manyika, Ravi Kanbur in Vox.

China, like many other countries, is past the point where policy can influence demographics. Although the partial relaxation of the one child policy in China’s urban areas has led to a small increase in fertility, and there is bound to be something of a spike in births as a result of the latest policy change, the economic impact in the short term will be limited, writes Jonathan Woetzel on LinkedIn.

With the right institutions and policies in place, it could become more viable for people to choose a freelance career path. Workers in many fields are becoming free agents in digital marketplaces, for better and for worse. Now policymakers and the private sector will need to create a framework that allows all of the participants—including the workers—to enjoy the economic upside, writes Susan Lund in The Huffington Post.

China is not given enough credit for how far it has come as an innovator. And yet, over the next decade, China could become not only the place where global companies conduct research and launch new products, but also the source of a low-cost and nimble approach to innovation that affects competition everywhere, write Martin Baily and Jonathan Woetzel in Project Syndicate.

Intensifying competitive pressures and a tougher operating environment could put a damper on future corporate profit growth. And with each passing year, there will be more companies fighting for a smaller slice of the pie, writes James Manyika on LinkedIn.

Two new McKinsey reports underscore the economic and business case for gender parity and explore both the hurdles that need to be overcome at work and in society and offer a range of solutions to closing the gender gap, writes James Manyika on LinkedIn.

This is an age of anxiety about the job-killing effects of automation, with dire headlines warning that the rise of robots will render entire occupational categories obsolete. But this fatalism assumes that we are powerless to harness what we create to improve our lives—and, indeed, our jobs. Evidence of technology’s potential to help resolve our job concerns can be found in online talent platforms, write James Manyika and Michael Spence in Project Syndicate.

India is becoming both an important market for tech and a growing source of tech innovation, writes James Manyika on LinkedIn

Despite progress on multiple fronts, parity between men and women remains an elusive goal. But achieving it offers huge economic potential—if full parity were to be achieved, the contribution of women to global GDP growth could double between 2014 and 2025, adding as much as $28 trillion or 26 percent to the global economy. This is roughly the combined size of the economies of the United States and China today, write James Manyika, Anu Madgavkar and Jonathan Woetzel in The Huffington Post.

Low oil prices, a more competitive euro exchange rate, and the European Central Bank’s judicious use of its full suite of monetary-stabilization policies—not to mention the fact that the threat of Grexit has been averted, at least for now—provide a favorable backdrop for such ambitious reforms. Even the political environment may not be as inauspicious as is often believed: Despite the worrying rise of anti-European sentiment in many countries—especially those hit hardest by the crisis—there is a palpable yearning among Europeans to break out of the continent’s debilitating economic (and political) rut, write Hans-Helmut Kotz, Eric Labaye and Sven Smit in Project Syndicate.

South Africa has a highly rated business environment, a strong legal and governance framework, excellent transport links, robust investment, and competitive firms. What’s needed is a concerted national effort to go after growth opportunities writes James Manyika on LinkedIn.

Today, we could be in for another Solow moment, courtesy of the Internet of Things, writes James Manyika on LinkedIn.

Today, we seem to be at a similar historical moment with a new innovation: the much-hyped Internet of Things—the linking of machines and objects to digital networks. Sensors, tags, and other connected gadgets mean that the physical world can now be digitized, monitored, measured, and optimized. As with computers before, the possibilities seem endless, the predictions have been extravagant—and the data have yet to show a surge in productivity, write James Manyika and Martin Neil Bailey in Project Syndicate.

Companies have a great deal to gain from the Internet of things.The business leaders who tackle the obstacles to implementing these systems and invest in new capabilities early stand to gain the most from building competitive advantages, write James Manyika and Michael Chui in Fortune.

Four powerful forces are disrupting the global economy and throwing many of our old assumptions into question, writes James Manyika on LinkedIn

Obesity has become one of our major global economic problems. Many people may be surprised to learn that obesity is jostling with armed conflict and smoking as a human activity with the greatest negative impact on the global economy, write Richard Dobbs and James Manyika in The Cairo Review of Global Affairs.

Job markets are ripe for transformation, and it’s finally here—in the form of digital platforms, the very same technologies that have reshaped the business landscape in areas such as e-commerce, writes James Manyika on LinkedIn.

We are currently living through the biggest mass migration from countryside to cities in human history. The global population of cities is growing by 65m people annually—that’s the equivalent of 7 Chicagos a year, every year. Between now and 2025, we calculate that 440 cities in developing countries will generate nearly half of global GDP growth writes Richard Dobbs, James Manyika and Jonathan Woetzel in Financial times.

Japan’s productivity slump permeates the entire economy; labor and capital productivity gains have nearly stalled in almost every sector. Japan’s ability to alter its trajectory depends on individual companies making decisions to invest, change workplace policies, deploy new technologies, and test untried business models, write Seki Obata and Georges Desvaux on Project Syndicate.

The jobs the nation has been creating in the past two years are very different in nature from the ones that were lost following the 2008 financial crisis.

Japan is on a trajectory toward another decade of anemic growth and intensifying fiscal pressures. With its workforce shrinking, Japan must simultaneously boost productivity and labor force participation through creative adaptations for older workers and an increased focus on robotics in the workforce.

In 2010, humanity passed an important milestone. Obesity became a bigger public-health problem than hunger. This crisis is not just a pressing health concern; it is also a threat to the global economy, write Richard Dobbs and Boyd Swinburn on Project Syndicate.

Rapid economic growth has placed enormous pressure on the environment. As demographic tailwinds turn into headwinds, and environmental challenges become ever more apparent, businesses and governments need to think carefully about how to improve resource efficiency while fostering more inclusive economic growth, write Laura Tyson and Jonathan Woetzel on Project Syndicate.

Global economic growth is under threat because populations are aging, shrinking the size of the pool of people able to work. The only answer to the growth question in an era of dramatic demographic change is productivity growth.

Since the 1980s, both national and international observers have predicted time and again that economic growth in Mexico is just about to take off. But it hasn’t, and others have quickly gained ground and overtaken Mexico. In 1980, for instance, Mexico’s GDP per capita was almost double South Korea’s and 30 per cent higher than Taiwan’s. Today, South Korean per capita GDP is twice Mexico’s and Taiwan’s is almost three times as much. China, which had one-twelfth of Mexico’s GDP per capita in 1980 could surpass Mexico by 2018.

Population aging is often cited as a major economic challenge for the developed world. But shifting demographics pose an even greater threat to the growth prospects of many emerging economies, write Martin Neil Baily and Jaana Remes on Project Syndicate.

Over the last decade, the number of new Internet users tripled. But, though a large majority of the world’s population remains offline, the pace of expansion has slowed sharply in recent years. Is the Internet revolution losing steam?

Productivity and innovation need to be front and center of everything we do. If they are not, global prosperity is in jeopardy. Only sweeping change—and being smarter about growth—can meet the challenge of an aging world, writes James Manyika, Jaana Remes, and Richard Dobbs on Harvard Business Review.

While technology is not a panacea there are excellent opportunities to harness digital technologies to make teachers more effective, writes Anu Madgavkar and Shirish Sankhe on LiveMint.com.