This week, how chief information officers can embrace their central role in navigating the public-health crisis. Plus, three articles on how companies should think about Gen Z and millennial consumers, and Manish Chopra, a McKinsey senior partner, on the power of meditation. |
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The coronavirus outbreak is presenting CIOs with the greatest challenge of their careers. We are seeing infrastructure breakdowns, denial-of-service attacks, and sites going down because of traffic load. Even as companies grapple with the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is already clear that CIOs are playing a central role in navigating the crisis. |
We expect the crisis to play out broadly across three waves: Wave 1, ensuring stability and business continuity while containing the crisis; Wave 2, institutionalizing new ways of working; and Wave 3, using lessons learned from the crisis to prioritize tech transformation and shape it for resilience. |
Based on conversations with more than 100 CIOs at global companies, we developed a CIO checklist for navigating the crisis. Even before the virus began disrupting business activity around the globe, many CIOs had not accepted the degree to which their role needs to expand beyond cost and performance responsibilities into one that leads the push to turn IT into a core driver of business value. |
According to a recent McKinsey IT strategy survey, 79 percent of the organizations that have pursued digitization are still in the early stages of transformation. Many CIOs continue to look after their department’s cost and performance, not yet embracing their power to use IT to drive business value. |
In the most competitive companies, tech departments that once supported operations have already made the leap to leading them. The landscape is being reshaped by transformation offices, which help organizations combine technical know-how with “soft” capabilities. |
Transformative CIOs are on top of all this—learning not only the operations of their companies but also staying current by serving on outside boards. They build tech structures that support creativity, innovation, and fast-twitch responses—not bureaucracies with layers of approval that stifle initiative. They scout outside talent and also develop from within. And, vitally, they are translators who turn tech into simple language, educating company leaders about technologies and their applications for the business. |
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OFF THE CHARTS |
Private equity’s new playbook |
Private equity firms and their portfolio companies come into the coronavirus crisis riding a decade-long wave of growing transaction volumes, valuations, and fundraising (see our Private Markets Annual Review from February 2020). That position of strength may prove a bulwark in the months ahead, especially for firms that have exercised prudence recently. But there are also fault lines in private markets: deal leverage recently reached a new high, and multiples paid in recent months reached a multiyear high. Portfolio companies must stress test their financials against a variety of scenarios. |
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INTERVIEW |
Data and the Danish genome |
Peter Løngreen, chief technology officer of the Danish National Genome Center, recently spoke with McKinsey about a fascinating national initiative to build the institutional and technological infrastructure needed for genomic mapping of the population. The benefits? Better medical treatment for patients and fewer side effects from it. But the journey comes with challenges of many kinds. “My team’s background is in supercomputing, IT architecture, and software development,” he said. “We do not necessarily have the complete understanding of the cause and effect of diseases that doctors have. But to assemble all these professionals, physicians, tech experts, and biologists in one place is powerful.” |
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MORE ON MCKINSEY.COM |
Asia’s Generation Z becomes a force | Gen Zers are already earning real money—and spending it. To reach this rising generation, businesses need to understand it. Well informed and accustomed to a fast pace of change, Gen Zers won’t make that easy. |
The young and the restless: Gen Z in America | Connected and exuberant, the newest consumer generation in the United States is beginning to define itself. Consumer-packaged-goods companies and retailers will need to appreciate what makes this cohort tick. |
Cracking the code on millennial consumers | Many forward-looking consumer companies and investment firms are wondering about the true marketplace potential of millennials and the appropriate influence of this cohort on their strategies. |
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WHAT WE’RE THINKING
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Manish Chopra |
Manish Chopra, a senior partner based in New York, is the author of The Equanimous Mind, which chronicles his experiences with Vipassana meditation. This essay is adapted from an article he wrote for the McKinsey Quarterly about how to be a better leader. We thought his insights would resonate with executives once again as they grapple with the implications of the coronavirus pandemic for their workplaces and their personal lives.
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Most time-strapped executives know they should plan ahead and prioritize, focus on the important as much as the urgent, invest in their health (including getting enough sleep), make time for family and relationships, and limit (even if they don’t entirely avoid) mindless escapism. But doing this is easier said than done, as we all know. |
In my case, I stumbled upon an ancient meditation technique that, to my surprise, improved my mind’s ability to better resist the typical temptations that get in the way of developing productive and healthy habits. Much in the same way that intense, focused physical activity serves to energize and revitalize the body during the rest of the day, meditation is for me—and for the many other people who use it—a mental aerobic exercise that declutters and detoxifies the mind to enhance its metabolic activity. |
Most of today’s workers—and senior executives perhaps most of all—lack what they need, whether it’s meditation or a different approach, to balance and offset the demands of their “anywhere, everywhere” roles in today’s corporations. The famous hitter Ted Williams, at the conclusion of a long baseball season, used to go hunting and fishing to relax and recharge. Winston Churchill was an amateur painter who once said, “If it weren’t for painting, I couldn’t live. I couldn’t bear the strain of things.” |
Most executives can’t disappear for long stretches to go fishing, and learning to paint sounds daunting. But they can use simple versions of proven meditation techniques to improve the quality of their lives. |
Shortly after starting meditation, I vividly recall hearing that McKinsey had lost to one of our main competitors the opportunity to serve an important healthcare ministry. As the lead partner on the negotiation, I’d spent months with colleagues from around the world developing what we thought was a compelling approach for helping the ministry. |
My instinctive reaction in similar situations previously would have been a mix of deflation, disappointment, frustration, and even resentment toward competitors. Minimizing any damage to the firm—and containing the impact on my own standing and career—would have been uppermost in my mind. I’m not saying I was completely free of those feelings this time around either, but something was different. There was more space between me and the emotional reaction that I would have had previously. |
Although meditation is a solitary act, it has helped me focus more on others. I wouldn’t say I’m now free of self-interest. But regular meditation has helped me better identify those things that I truly need to be involved with and those that could carry on without my direct involvement. This has freed up a good 10 to 20 percent of productive time, and it has reduced my stress about not pulling my weight. It has also been energizing for those who work with me, allowing many of them to step up and take greater ownership and control. |
I would sum up my experience in four words: observe more, react less. I try to observe myself more disinterestedly and to avoid knee-jerk reactions to the rush of incoming stimuli and to situations that seem negative. Even if I don’t always succeed, I am more easily able to identify my weaknesses. That helps me work smarter and lead better toward longer-lasting achievements. |
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BACKTALK |
Have feedback or other ideas? We’d love to hear from you. |
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