Management: The next 50 years

The collision of technological disruption, rapid emerging-markets growth, and widespread aging is upending long-held assumptions that underpin strategy setting, decision making, and management.

A unique gathering of strategists from academia, leading companies, and McKinsey debates the state of the discipline, with an emphasis on opportunities for innovation in a changing world.

The founder of McKinsey’s Strategy Practice, a London Business School professor, and a chief strategist turned professor describe pain points and possibilities for strategists on the leading edge.

Technology is getting smarter, faster. Are you? Experts including the authors of The Second Machine Age, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, examine the impact that “thinking” machines may have on top-management roles.

As artificial intelligence takes hold, what will it take to be an effective executive?

Thirty years after leaving McKinsey, the prolific author returns to discuss tomorrow’s management challenges and the keys to organizational change and transformative leadership in any age.

After more than 50 years of trying, the search for an ideal model of the global organization remains elusive. But intriguing new experiments are under way.

In 2010, eBay embarked on a journey to bring more women into its top ranks. It found that commitment, measurement, and culture outweigh a business case and HR policies.

McKinsey’s former managing director Ian Davis explores the phenomenon of long-lived companies and the values and practices they share.

The former IBM CEO offers his thoughts on the principles and strategies that sustain a company in the long run.

In separate commentaries, former Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata and SEB chairman Marcus Wallenberg both argue that creative destruction can be taken too far.

If demography is destiny, global growth is headed for a slowdown. History, however, suggests that productivity could ride to the rescue.

While government policy will play a key role, the actions of managers and their organizations will decisively influence the realization of global productivity potential in the years ahead.

The economist who won a Nobel Prize for advancing our understanding of technology looks at the past and future of productivity-led growth.

Despite its ability to generate prosperity, capitalism is under attack. By shaking up our long-held assumptions about how and why the system works, we can improve it.

Unilever chief executive Paul Polman explains why capitalism must evolve, his company’s efforts to change, and how business leaders are critical to solving intractable problems.

Consumption takes off fast in emerging markets. One reason? Plastics.

Purchases of life insurance surge at a relatively high income threshold.

Surging numbers of middle-class borrowers in emerging markets are a big factor in banking’s growth, but there’s also plenty of potential in the upper reaches.

A decade of restructuring and transformation efforts has taken a toll on organizational health.

New research suggests that Western players, especially those in Europe, have something to learn from their counterparts in Asia.

A huge spending tab looms. The financial pressures will prompt nations to think creatively about their needs.