McKinsey & Company

At a glance The global trade system is in flux. Since 2017, economies have traded less with geopolitically distant partners. Recent announcements on tariffs, trade, and industrial policy have deepened uncertainty. Trade will grow by $12 trillion by 2035 in a baseline scenario. The trade increase would boost today’s global trade value by about 35 percent, to $45 trillion. In a diversification scenario (in which companies seek new sources of…

Imagine the weekly meeting of a company’s executive team. The chief marketing officer (CMO) reports that all marketing metrics are on the rise. Brand awareness and web traffic are strong due to the latest ad campaign, which is loved by consumers and the press alike. Everyone is feeling good—until later in the meeting, when the CFO shares the latest financial results. Sales and market share are declining, and last quarter’s…

Choosing where to invest and seek funding are among the most fundamental decisions business leaders make. Recent geopolitical shifts are complicating the analysis, however. Across the globe, governments are increasingly regulating investment flows into and out of their territories and industries. While countries have long applied constraints on inbound foreign direct investment (FDI) to advance their economic and national security interests, the use of investment laws has increased significantly and…

The 2025 edition of the Aerospace Industries Association’s (AIA) annual aerospace and defense (A&D) workforce study was written as part of an ongoing collaboration with McKinsey that included a survey of AIA member companies and their executive leaders. The survey revealed that persistent core talent shortages and high attrition rates threaten to limit future progress of the A&D industry, which continues to grow at a robust 4.8 percent year over year. A&D…

At a glance Nearly eight in ten companies report using gen AI—yet just as many report no significant bottom-line impact. Think of it as the “gen AI paradox.” At the heart of this paradox is an imbalance between “horizontal” (enterprise-wide) copilots and chatbots—which have scaled quickly but deliver diffuse, hard-to-measure gains—and more transformative “vertical” (function-specific) use cases—about 90 percent of which remain stuck in pilot mode. AI agents offer a…

Back in 1959, our former colleague Gil Clee cowrote an article in Harvard Business Review that urged CEOs to embrace the challenge of creating “world enterprises.” Given the rapid expansion of international trade taking place at that time, the article advised CEOs “to view [their] responsibility as global in scope … and to organize [their] corporation in such a way that its major decisions are considered and made in the…

Just under a year before what is now the Carrier Global Corporation was to complete its spin-off from United Technologies, David Gitlin was elevated to the position of president and CEO of Carrier. And in the final months before that spin-off was completed, the world shut down in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a challenging start to a new CEO’s tenure by any measure, despite Gitlin’s previous…

Today, Jeniffer Ramnath spearheads innovation in her role as chief digital and information officer at the Mastercard Foundation (the Foundation), which works to advance education and financial inclusion for young people in Africa. However, she hasn’t forgotten her humble beginnings as a call center agent in a bustling, unfamiliar Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province—nor what it takes to break through in an industry that often privileges men over women.…

In this interview, Horace Tiggs IV, a partner in McKinsey’s Detroit office, speaks with W. David Tarver, president and founder of the Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative (UEI), about spurring innovation and entrepreneurship within urban communities, how that drives economic mobility, and the challenges it faces today. They also discuss the importance of connecting entrepreneurs to ecosystems that lead to new solutions and scale. This transcript has been edited for clarity and…

In an era when digital experiences are closely tied to customer loyalty and financial success, credit unions stand at a crossroads. In a 2024 article, we spotlighted the growing chasm between credit unions and their competitors, a gulf that’s particularly noticeable among younger generations. Despite credit unions’ inherent advantages over banks, such as stronger member relationships and community ties, they are losing ground in the digital space.Furthermore, changing demographics spell…

Let’s look at the next chapter of AI—agentic AI, and how it could unlock the next generation of operational excellence and productivity in service operations. We dig into the high stakes of continued investment in digital transformation and the potential payoffs. We discuss collaborations between the chief information officer (CIO) and COO, and how thoughtful talent strategies can set organizations up for continued digital success.In this episode of McKinsey Talks…

Although the momentum has slowed in recent years, a large share of leading companies around the world have set bold decarbonization targets, and in the coming years, many will need to tackle the Scope 3 emissions linked to the materials embedded in their products. This article, which focuses on glass—particularly the flat glass industry—is part of a series of articles on how materials industries can decarbonize and increase circularity, offering…

Across the copper value chain, companies are setting ambitious targets to reach carbon neutrality in the next decade. This push for decarbonization coincides with increasing demand for copper—driven by the metal’s significance in future-facing applications such as batteries, renewable energy, and electricity transmission and distribution—as well as restricted supply. In fact, the world is expected to face a refined-copper shortfall of about 3.6 million metric tons (Mt) by 2035, according…

In today’s volatile environment, transformation at scale is more critical than ever for leaders looking to achieve a lasting performance advantage. Our research shows that one way to gain and sustain that advantage is to upgrade the procurement function. We analyzed thousands of companies’ transformation results across more than 340,000 transformation initiatives, which collectively represent more than $200 billion in value (see sidebar, “Scope of analysis”). We find that procurement…

The $450 billion global beauty industry, a darling of the consumer goods market, has been white hot, but is the industry’s momentum finally cooling? For years, a seemingly insatiable appetite for newness in beauty fueled robust volume and even greater pricing growth, with the sector growing 7 percent annually from 2022 to 2024. Now, geopolitical and economic uncertainty, market saturation, and evolving consumer preferences threaten that progress, requiring industry leaders…

Plastics production accounts for about 3 percent of humanity’s global carbon emissions footprint. In addition, about 1.0 billion to 1.2 billion metric tons of fossil CO2 is bound up in plastic per year and may be released at the end of that plastic’s life if not treated in a circular way or buried, according to McKinsey analysis. Plastics are used in almost every industry, in products as simple as plastic…

Imagine two financial institutions. The first manages its loan origination process through a patchwork of task-level automation and predictive models. It uses historical credit scores, rigid underwriting rules, and batch processing to move applications through a series of sequential steps. While some parts of the process have been digitized, many decisions still require human intervention—whether due to exception handling, regulatory compliance checks, or risk flagging. This results in slower decision-making,…

Senior housing is designed for people to live in as they age and may be located within communities that provide catering and social activities, as well as medical care. But even in the most developed markets, only 5 percent of seniors move in. How can the senior-housing industry help support aging societies while expanding successful businesses? McKinsey’s Sam O’Gorman explains to McKinsey Global Publishing’s Katy McLaughlin how operators can address fears…

The post-2020 era has been one of enormous upheaval. The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly changed consumer behavior and preferences, and uncertainty and disruption have continued to be major features of the global economy ever since. For example, the United States has been through a period of comparatively high inflation, there is global geopolitical uncertainty, and many countries have been roiled by the energy crisis and volatile financial markets. The result, as…

Executives view innovation as their companies’ primary source of competitive advantage for delivering growth. However, in many sectors, that belief doesn’t align with companies’ spending on innovation or the returns they get on those investments, the latest McKinsey Global Survey on innovation finds. During times of economic volatility, business leaders tend to focus on short-term profitability, often putting longer-term projects designed to spur growth on the back burner. Yet as our…

The United Kingdom is home to one of the largest capital markets in the world and provides liquidity to a range of national and multinational companies. It continues to serve as a hub for export services as well as technology and business process innovation, with a flourishing private capital market. Yet negative narratives about the dynamics of UK capital markets persist, with a consensus that UK companies are undervalued compared with…

The global quality-of-life (QoL) market is expanding beyond its traditional roots in health and life sciences to become a strategic priority for all sectors, including real estate, technology, and consumer-facing industries. Executives prioritizing QoL estimate that related offerings could represent 9 to 15 percent of annual sector revenues over the next decade, potentially amounting to $6.7 trillion to $11.2 trillion in market growth by 2034. What’s more, investment in QoL-related…

Growth in the generative AI era looks like a classic case of “two steps forward, one step back.” As companies come to grips with the unique complexities of gen AI, initial progress leads to reversals and redos, in some cases threatening to stop development altogether.There are many sources of frustration and delay, from a lack of sufficient talent to ongoing data quality issues. But our experience working closely with more…

Leaders worldwide are moving fast to deploy AI at scale. But scaling AI means more data centers—and data centers consume vast quantities of energy. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey’s Jesse Noffsinger and Pankaj Sachdeva speak with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about what needs to happen to build new, bigger data centers quickly, as well as to sate these data centers’ growing hunger for power.The McKinsey Podcast is cohosted…

Tech debt and complex tech migrations have become major obstacles to successful digital transformations. These challenges stem from the fact that many organizations built their technology infrastructure on legacy systems from a different era. This prevents companies from adopting new technologies that would enable them to respond to fast-changing market trends and customer expectations. To overcome these limitations, many organizations are adopting composable tech stacks—a modern approach to building technology…

JPMorganChase is a global financial institution with $4 trillion in assets. With over 300,000 employees, the firm has long focused on collecting and leveraging data to better serve its millions of customers and clients. But in 2023, JPMorganChase embarked on a new data transformation journey. McKinsey Senior Partner Kevin Buehler recently sat down with Mark Birkhead, firmwide chief data officer, to hear more about how the firm is leveraging its…

For businesses to compete effectively and create value, they need to be fast, flexible, and focused on the customer. This has put technology center stage at many businesses and heralds the new dawn of the tech officer as a strategic partner to the business. But what business users and customers see in technology, argues Deb Hall Lefevre, CTO for Starbucks Coffee Company, is often not what matters most in the…

India’s $580 billion to $650 billion agriculture sector is at a strategic juncture. A combination of external tailwinds and internal momentum—driven by factors ranging from structural reforms to digital and technological innovation—has propelled India to emerge as one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing agricultural economies. As agricultural supply chains become increasingly interconnected, India’s scale as an agricultural producer and exporter positions it as a critical player in the shifting…

The healthcare ecosystem is highly complex, often leaving patients frustrated with their experiences and sometimes unable to access the care they need when they need it. So what can be done? In the latest episode of the McKinsey on Healthcare podcast, senior partner Drew Ungerman, global leader of McKinsey’s social, healthcare, and public sector entities work and global coleader of the McKinsey Health Institute, shares his thoughts on the intersection…

Materials value chains are complex and span the entire globe, and they represent 20 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To reach net-zero targets, the world is undergoing a materials transition in tandem with the ongoing energy and mobility transitions. Organizations around the world are making net-zero and circularity pledges to support this transition and decarbonize. Increasingly, consumers and governments are championing regulations and policies that promote a circular…

It’s easy for a start-up culture to survive in a new corporate venture that comprises just a handful of like-minded people. But when corporate ventures grow to hundreds or even thousands of people, the culture can break down. To avoid this outcome, the venture’s leaders can systematically build and maintain a healthy culture that takes the unique corporate context into account. The cost of not doing so can be high.…

According to CEO and Managing Director T. V. Narendran, Tata Steel has been actively pursuing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ideals since its establishment in 1907. For instance, founder J. N. Tata did not want the company to replicate the problems English laborers experienced during the industrial development of the 1800s, so he built workers’ accommodations close to steel factories. In the 1920s, Tata Steel instituted an eight-hour workday, introduced…

Europe’s technology ecosystem stands at a turning point. While this ecosystem has matured significantly over the past decade, persistent structural barriers—fragmented markets, conservative corporate norms, and a slower flow of late-stage capital relative to early-stage investment—continue to constrain the region’s ability to scale global champions. However, a rare alignment of geopolitical, regulatory, and technological shifts is creating new momentum and, with it, a window to build global leadership. This report…

To millennials and Gen Zers, wellness has become a daily, personalized practice rather than a set of occasional activities or purchases. As this shift takes hold, it’s influencing the direction of the $2 trillion global wellness industry, which is expanding beyond its core categories. Even though younger demographics may be pushing the industry forward, older consumers, too, are becoming more interested in an expanding definition of wellness. In our fourth…

Every year, millions of tourists flock to Italy to take in cultural sites and, of course, shop. Italy is home to major global fashion brands and storied craftsmanship, playing a critical role in the global fashion industry. There may be high foot traffic on Via Montenapoleone in Milan or Via Tornabuoni in Florence, but the Italian fashion sector nevertheless faces several challenges, some of which are homegrown, while others are…

Most CEOs recognize the transformation opportunities inherent in an M&A transaction. As we’ve noted previously, the deal can be a catalyst for reimagining the strategy of the combined business; identifying and pursuing new sources of value; enhancing operations, or the way the business executes on its strategy; and attracting and developing new talent and capabilities. Of those four opportunities, the last one—the talent factor—holds perhaps the most promise in terms of…

Advertising is the industry that won’t sit still. Over the past three decades, the industry has morphed again and again. Brands once reached people primarily through mass media like TV, print, and radio, gaining precious few consumer insights. The internet changed all that with targeted and interactive campaigns online. More recently, retail media networks (RMNs) helped retailers enter the media business. Leveraging shopper and transaction data, RMNs help brands reach prospective…

Medtech companies are at the forefront of healthcare innovation, developing life-changing devices and solutions to help clinicians diagnose diseases earlier, perform interventions more precisely, and monitor patient health more effectively. Innovations such as minimally invasive surgical robots, AI-powered diagnostic imaging, and connected diabetes management systems have transformed patient care. As the industry emerges from a period of margin compression and dampened multiples, AI, enhanced by gen AI, can play a…

Quick wins alone can’t solve long-term problems. For instance, as anyone who has tried to get healthier can attest, cutting calories can be a good first step, but making comprehensive changes in diet and exercise is most critical to achieving lasting results. The financial-services industry provides another example. Like other industries, it has experienced increased instability over the past decade. To address long-standing cost challenges, many financial-services companies have responded…

Scams, fraud, and abuse are an increasingly difficult problem for the payments industry. In this episode of Talking Banking Matters, David Excell, the founder of Featurespace, speaks with McKinsey partner and payments industry expert Grace Klopcic about how the company got its start in the gaming and sports betting world, and why it uses machine learning rather than a complex set of rules to understand consumer behavior and quickly identify…