Back to McKinsey Quarterly Magazine
McKinsey Quarterly 2014
McKinsey Quarterly 2014 Number 3

Management: The next 50 years

Our 50th anniversary edition examines the future of management, including long-term capitalism, leadership in an era of machine learning, next frontiers for strategists, and global productivity.

The new management environment

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Management intuition for 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.

Next frontiers for strategy

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

What strategists need: A meeting of the minds
– 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.
Commentary - McKinsey Quarterly

Synthesis, capabilities, and overlooked insights: Next frontiers for strategists
– 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.

Leading in the era of brilliant machines

Interview - McKinsey Quarterly

Artificial intelligence meets the C-suite
– 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.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Manager and machine: The new leadership equation
– As artificial intelligence takes hold, what will it take to be an effective executive?

The evolving organization

Interview - McKinsey Quarterly

Tom Peters on leading the 21st-century organization
– 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.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

The past and future of global organizations
– 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.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Realizing the power of talented women
– 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.

Thriving over the long haul

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Reflections on corporate longevity
– McKinsey’s former managing director Ian Davis explores the phenomenon of long-lived companies and the values and practices they share.
Interview - McKinsey Quarterly

Lou Gerstner on corporate reinvention and values
– The former IBM CEO offers his thoughts on the principles and strategies that sustain a company in the long run.
Commentary - McKinsey Quarterly

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

Productivity and the future of growth

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

A productivity perspective on the future of growth
– If demography is destiny, global growth is headed for a slowdown. History, however, suggests that productivity could ride to the rescue.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Why management matters for productivity
– 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.
Interview - McKinsey Quarterly

Prospects for growth: An interview with Robert Solow
– The economist who won a Nobel Prize for advancing our understanding of technology looks at the past and future of productivity-led growth.

The future of capitalism

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Redefining capitalism
– 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.
Commentary - McKinsey Quarterly

Business, society, and the future of capitalism
– 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.

Research, trends, and emerging thinking

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Climbing the curve quickly in petrochemicals
– Consumption takes off fast in emerging markets. One reason? Plastics.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

An open road for life insurance
– Purchases of life insurance surge at a relatively high income threshold.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Viewing banking opportunities through different lenses
– 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.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Confronting change fatigue in the pharmaceutical industry
– A decade of restructuring and transformation efforts has taken a toll on organizational health.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Building cars with less capital
– New research suggests that Western players, especially those in Europe, have something to learn from their counterparts in Asia.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

A dose of innovation to ease infrastructure strains?
– A huge spending tab looms. The financial pressures will prompt nations to think creatively about their needs.