McKinsey Quarterly 2015
Back to McKinsey Quarterly Magazine McKinsey Quarterly 2015 Number 1

Marketing and sales: New & improved

The five elements of success in marketing’s new golden age, including interviews with the chief marketers of Daimler and Google. Also, how B2B customers make decisions now, a virtuous cycle for top-line growth, and the power of emerging advanced analytics for HR.

Modern marketing and sales

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

The dawn of marketing’s new golden age
– Marketers are boosting their precision, broadening their scope, moving more quickly, and telling better stories.
Interview - McKinsey Quarterly

How Google breaks through
– Lorraine Twohill, Google’s senior vice president of global marketing, describes what has and hasn’t changed for marketers trying to connect with customers.
Interview - McKinsey Quarterly

Marketing the Mercedes way
– Ola Källenius of Daimler discusses the high-tech and high-touch marketing of an iconic brand.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Do you really understand how your business customers buy?
– B2B purchasing decisions increasingly trace complex journeys, challenging the long-standing practices of many sales organizations.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

A virtuous cycle for top-line growth
– New data and better coordination can create value in the sales channel.

Other highlights

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Getting big impact from big data
– New technology tools are making adoption by the front line much easier, and that’s accelerating the organizational adaptation needed to produce results.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Power to the new people analytics
– Techniques used to mine consumer and industry data may also let HR tackle employee retention and dissatisfaction.
Interview - McKinsey Quarterly

Bill Ford charts a course for the future
– The carmaker’s executive chairman offers his thoughts on the discontinuities facing automakers, management, and the city of Detroit.
Book Excerpt - McKinsey Quarterly

Perspectives on the long term
– What will it take to shift markets and companies away from a short-term way of thinking?
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Where to look for global growth
– Productivity gains could make the difference in an aging world.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Do your training efforts drive performance?
– Building organizational capabilities is a top strategic priority, but an inability to measure the impact is a growing concern among executives we surveyed.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Digitizing the value chain
– Challenges remain for “Industry 4.0,” but the buzz is growing.