McKinsey Quarterly 2013
Back to McKinsey Quarterly Magazine McKinsey Quarterly 2013 Number 1

Putting time to work

Learn the art of time management and how it can drive personal and professional success. Also, how boards and senior-management teams can engage with each other more effectively; making work more meaningful; and social-media skills leaders need.

Putting time to work

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Making time management the organization’s priority
– To stop wasting a finite resource, companies should tackle time problems systematically rather than leave them to individuals.
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A personal approach to organizational time management
– Improving the fit between the priorities of managers, their direct reports, and their supervisors—all the way up to the CEO—is a good place to start.

Improving performance through better board engagement

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Board governance depends on where you sit
– William George, former CEO of Medtronic and a veteran of ten corporate boards, reflects on common governance pitfalls and how to overcome them.
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Tapping the strategic potential of boards
– Too many boards just review and approve strategy. Three questions can help them—and executives—begin to do better.
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Engaging boards on the future of marketing
– At many companies, the whole organization is becoming more responsible for customer engagement. A few are extending this thinking to the boardroom.
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Modernizing the board’s role in M&A 
– Active involvement can help companies capture more value—and develop a competitive advantage in deal making.

Other highlights

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Increasing the ‘meaning quotient’ of work
– Through a few simple techniques, executives can boost workplace “MQ” and inspire employees to perform at their peak.
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Six social-media skills every leader needs
– Organizational social-media literacy is fast becoming a source of competitive advantage. Learn, through the lens of executives at General Electric, how you and your leaders can keep up.
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Leadership and the art of plate spinning
– Senior executives will better balance people and priorities by embracing the paradoxes of organizational life.
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Leadership lessons from the Royal Navy
– This branch of the British armed services consciously fosters cheerfulness and nourishes its collective memory. Business executives should take note.
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Battle-test your innovation strategy
– Leading companies use war games to focus better on their competitors, while improving the way they identify, shape, and seize opportunities to innovate.

Research, trends, and emerging thinking

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Understanding Asia’s conglomerates
– Conglomerates are shaping the competitive landscape in Asia. Would-be rivals must understand them to compete with them.
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Big data in the age of the telegraph
– Daniel McCallum’s 1854 organizational design for the New York and Erie Railroad resembles a tree rather than a pyramid. It empowered frontline managers by clarifying data flows.
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Learning from Japan’s early electric-vehicle buyers
– About one-third of early buyers in Japan say their next car may not be an electric vehicle. Companies should heed their complaints.
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Measuring the real cost of water
– Big savings are available to companies that look beyond their utility bills and understand the broader economic costs of their water consumption.