In the news. America’s family farms are at a generational crossroads. The Wall Street Journal reports that more farmers are reaching retirement age just as higher costs, lower commodity prices, and trade pressures are squeezing margins. In 2025, the number of farms filing for bankruptcy rose 46% from the prior year. Meanwhile, there are now more farmers aged 75 and older than under 35. Many heirs have chosen careers off the farm, leaving aging owners to wrestle with trusts, buyouts, or potential sales. For these businesses, their communities, and the agriculture industry, many questions remain about succession planning and the future of farming. [WSJ]

The impact of the “Great Ownership Transfer” falls disproportionately in rural areas and among underrepresented communities, where access to capital, advisory support, and success networks is more limited.

On McKinsey.com. A similar transition is unfolding across other small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). By 2035, about six million US SMBs will face ownership changes as baby boomers retire, write Ken Yearwood, Shelley Stewart III, Nathan Marks, and Nick Noel in a McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility report. More than one million firms are viable candidates for transferring ownership, representing up to $5 trillion in enterprise value. Yet most exits today result in closures, not sales. Learn how building a coordinated transition market—through succession planning, standardized financing, and buyer development—could preserve up to 12 million jobs and $250 billion in annual local spending power.

Enable economic renewal

In the news. Stablecoin activity hit new highs in 2025, with total transaction volumes climbing 72% to $33 trillion, Bloomberg reports. One dollar-pegged token accounted for $18.3 trillion of flows, and another for $13.3 trillion. Analysts project that stablecoin volumes could approach $56 trillion by 2030, suggesting continued growth, even if stablecoins don’t become mainstream forms of payment. Government policy and corporate exploration have accelerated adoption, even as some institutions caution about potential risks to lending and monetary stability. [Bloomberg]

On McKinsey.com. Despite this growth, only a small fraction of stablecoin transaction volumes reflects real-world payments, write McKinsey’s Matt Higginson and coauthors. Their analysis, conducted with Artemis Analytics, suggests that true stablecoin payment volumes make up roughly 0.02% of global payments, while most stablecoin use consists mainly of trading, internal shuffling of funds, and automated blockchain activity. The long-term potential for stablecoins and their ability to reshape payments remains high. But for financial institutions, careful interpretation is warranted. They should look beyond raw blockchain data, focus on high-value use cases (such as cross-border B2B and settlement), and invest selectively while building scalable capabilities.

Separate signal from noise

New pressures—and opportunities—in operations

In the news. Prices for consumer goods, from laptops to electrical machinery, could rise in 2026 as shipping and logistics costs spike, The Guardian reports. According to a survey by a procurement membership association, concerns about supply chain disruption are at a two-year high—and more than one in five procurement leaders said their shipping and logistics costs rose above 10% in late 2025. At the same time, spot container rates between Asia and the West Coast of the United States jumped about 30% in a few weeks’ time. [Guardian]

On McKinsey.com. In this environment, operations can no longer be a cost center; they must drive growth. In a conversation with Senior Partners Pierre de la Boulaye and Søren Fritzen, Danone COO Vikram Agarwal describes how digital manufacturing, AI-driven forecasting, and portfolio simplification are improving the company’s capacity utilization, cost predictions, and performance. More than 80 of Danone’s factories are now part of a digital acceleration program, and its AI tools help forecast the cost of goods sold across millions of variables. The company is also training its people and building a culture of bottom-up input on use cases to fully realize its operational transformation.

Reinvent operations for resilience