FOUR OF OUR BEST NEW IDEAS

Hello, Shortlist readers! This week we’re pleased to introduce a new format. We started this newsletter because we know it’s hard to sort through all the content—from McKinsey and elsewhere—to find the articles and reports that spark ideas. From now on, we’ll bring you a carefully curated selection of our best insights: four of our best new stories, twice monthly.

In this edition, we’re proud to feature some of the fundamental research we shared last week at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

— Liz and Homayoun

What’s new

You don’t need us to tell you: it’s an astonishingly difficult time to lead an organization. The headwinds are many and varied, which is why Davos has never mattered more. For leaders who attended the gathering last week looking for guidance on resilience building, McKinsey had them covered. We collaborated with the World Economic Forum to create the Resilience Consortium, a public–private collaboration that hopes to set the resilience agenda for the coming years. We estimate that if everyone gets on board, global GDP could be 8 to 15 percent higher by 2030.

To learn more, read Why Davos matters more than ever by Tracy Francis and Daniel Pacthod.

What’s now

What a difference a year makes. The world changed radically between COP26 and COP27. Critical now is the power of and: strategies that square the need for resilience and net-zero commitments. Both private and public sectors can address the energy crisis head-on and drive an energy transition that is secure, affordable, and clean. McKinsey has developed ten takeaways for leaders looking to accelerate the transition toward net zero while maintaining security and affordability—as well as a region-by-region guide to the energy transition.

Check out Daniel Pacthod, Tarek El Sayed, and Amina Kandil’s Reflections from COP27 and ten takeaways for CEOs looking to move the needle on climate change.

What’s next

All together now: globalization means our world is highly interconnected, with goods, services, capital, people, data, and ideas flowing across borders. Lately, those connections have been called into question. But new McKinsey research finds that the economic ties that bind us are deep, persistent, and hard to reverse. Why? For one thing, global trade is heavily concentrated: in the case of many goods, a handful of countries supply the entire rest of the world. So globalization isn’t ready for the scrap heap. Instead, it needs reimagining. 

Understand why globalization is here to stay with Global flows: The ties that bind in an interconnected world by Jeongmin Seong, Olivia White, Jonathan Woetzel, Sven Smit, Tiago Devesa, Michael Birshan, and Hamid Samandari.

What’s needed

Businesses and societies can become more inclusive, not only because it confers a competitive advantage but also because it’s the right thing to do. But we’re moving toward parity far too slowly. At the current rate of progress, it will take 151 years to close the global economic gender gaps, 29 years for executive teams to reach gender parity, and 24 years to reach ethnic parity. To do better, we need to know what works and what doesn’t. McKinsey’s latest research collaboration with the World Economic Forum examines the lighthouse organizations that are running DEI initiatives with significant impact. 

Keep an eye on the prize with our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Lighthouses 2023 report by Kweilin Ellingrud, Diana Ellsworth, Stephanie Madner, Raya Musallam, Ishaa Sandhu, and Lareina Yee.

We hope you find this synthesis helpful. See you in two weeks with four more ideas from McKinsey. 

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