McKinsey & Company

The past decade has been exceptionally favorable for US defined contribution (DC) retirement plans. The retirement solutions providers—also known as retirement recordkeepers—that administer DC plans on behalf of various employers have experienced consistent revenue growth over this period, as plans have become more accessible and equity market performance has been strong. Now, things are changing. The retirement industry is approaching a tipping point due to demographic shifts, industry developments, and…

One of the key challenges finance departments face is connecting the various bits of data generated when money moves into or out of the business. This is especially true for small and midsize businesses. Although a profusion of digital payments providers has cropped up to help such companies, many systems generating data from money movement don’t talk to a company’s other systems—at least not well. In this episode of Talking…

On this page: Opportunity | Solution | Impact 0Kworkforce developmentteam members0.7M people across the US & Canadasupported annually$0Bannual earningsgenerated by 2028 The Opportunity Addressing changing workforce needs The US labor market is rapidly evolving, driven by the rise of automation and AI, changes in federal spending, and demographic shifts including a swiftly growing aging population. The result is a fundamental shift in workforce priorities with the economy likely to see…

Global trade turmoil, supply chain uncertainty, consumer jitters: 2025 is shaping up to be a challenging year for the fashion industry—and many brands are worried. But in the words of McKinsey Senior Partner Gemma D’Auria, “Yes, there are risks, but there are also opportunities to be captured.” On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, D’Auria speaks with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about our latest State of Fashion research, including who’s…

Tariffs and trade controls are expanding rapidly around the world. Macroeconomic uncertainty is growing. Second-order effects of government actions are multiplying.The first global economic shock since the COVID-19 pandemic has arrived. While geopolitical tensions have been rising for several years, the recent wave of trade controls and reciprocal tariffs has come on quickly and intensely. Not since the 1930s has the world seen this level of tariff activity. The impact on businesses…

LCFC, Lenovo’s Hefei factory, was designated as a member of the Global Lighthouse Network in 2023. By accelerating the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies and committing to R&D and innovation, LCFC has crafted a “peak manufacturing” paradigm, achieving a leap in manufacturing capabilities. In a talk with McKinsey’s Forest Hou, LCFC CEO Xiaohui Ding shares insights into the factory’s digital transformation journey. Highlighting the challenges of managing a highly personalized…

India is drawing attention as a global business hub. With a strong talent base, a large pool of consumers, and continuously improving infrastructure, the country offers many opportunities for multinational companies over the next decade. According to one estimate, India could gain up to $0.8 trillion to $1.2 trillion from trade-flow shifts by 2030 and boost the country’s GDP share for manufacturing from 16 percent in 2023 to 25 percent…

In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey Global Publishing’s Rochelle Toplensky chats with Karthik Ramanna, professor of business and public policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, about his new book, The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World (Harvard Business Review Press, Fall 2024). Ramanna provides a new framework for how to sustainably manage during the “era of outrage” built on fear, lack…

In this episode of The Committed Innovator, restaurateur John McDonald, the founder and CEO of Mercer Street Hospitality, speaks with McKinsey senior partner and innovation leader Erik Roth about maintaining success and equilibrium in the notoriously difficult hospitality industry. This is an edited transcript of their conversation. For more discussions on the strategy issues that matter, follow the series on your preferred podcast platform. Erik Roth, McKinsey: Why did you…

People want food delivered to their homes, and they want it nowArne Gast: To kick us off, please tell us a little bit about your business, and how it has evolved since you founded the company in 2000. Jitse Groen: It all started in my attic. We began operating in the Netherlands with Thuisbezorgd.nl, an online food delivery platform. The business grew rapidly, and we rebranded it as Takeaway.com in…

In this episode of Eureka!, McKinsey’s podcast on innovation in life sciences R&D, hosts Navraj Nagra, Alex Devereson, and Meredith Langstaff speak to Ashita Batavia, head of hematology and oncology data sciences, R&D, at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (J&J). They discuss how real-world data can better inform clinical trials, the shifts in mindsets and capabilities needed to support AI in biopharma, and how to navigate the complexity of clinical…

For Selex, the key growth driver in the coming years will be investments in new capabilities.Franck Laizet: Selex has shown success over the course of the past several years. What are the factors driving that development? Maniele Tasca: The most important factor is the quality of our companies. In 2005, our group consisted of 34 companies, and our market share was between 6 and 7 percent. Today, we have 18…

Daniel Läubli: Albert Heijn is one of the few supermarket chains in Europe that has continued to gain market share over the course of the past six years. What’s the magic ingredient of its success?Marit van Egmond: Of course, there is no single magic ingredient. That would be too simple. There are several key ingredients. The most important one is our rigorous customer focus. We work every day to be…

In a recent speech, US President Donald Trump asserted that the United States has fallen behind in shipbuilding, declaring a goal to make more ships “very fast, very soon.” The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Trump administration is drafting a new executive order intended to energize US shipbuilding. And a proposed piece of US legislation announced in 2024 (sponsored by a bipartisan group of congresspeople) noted an intent…

Anita Leung was still in high school when she got a glimpse into her future in the tech industry. It was an exciting place to build a career, but it could also be a lonely place for a woman. As a sophomore, Anita spotted a flyer about the need for more women in technology. She signed up for a class in peer-networking software. Out of 30 students, she was the…

McKinsey hosted its annual Asian Leaders’ dinner at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January, bringing together more than 70 top executives from around the region. They explored critical themes around Asia’s future, including geopolitical resilience, trade corridors, AI and gen AI, energy transitions, and demographic challenges. Clay Chandler, executive editor, Asia, at Fortune moderated the discussions. In this post-Davos interview, he talks with McKinsey senior partners Gautam…

Much is known about what makes private sector CEOs successful. But research is lacking on the practices of public sector leaders—even though they manage one-third of the global workforce, around a quarter of global GDP, and services that are essential for societies. To help close this knowledge gap, McKinsey has built a database of public service leaders who have excelled, drawing on a global survey of over 750 senior leaders…

As geopolitical tensions continue to mount, governments around the world are expanding restrictions on what domestic companies can sell abroad. Most business leaders are familiar with export controls affecting military or dual-use items (those that have both military and civilian applications). What is harder to untangle are the complex export control restrictions that governments can implement, or have already implemented, to promote policy goals affecting their countries’ technological and economic…

In this episode of McKinsey on Building Products, McKinsey partner Rikki Singh speaks to Tamar Yehoshua, president of product and technology at Glean, an AI platform that helps automate work by connecting and understanding a company’s entire knowledge base. Throughout her years of experience at large software companies, Yehoshua has learned how to build digital products that customers love and how to approach the change management needed for employees to…

In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey Global Publishing’s Emily Adeyanju chats with Michael Chad Hoeppner, founder and CEO of GK Training, about his book Don’t Say Um: How to Communicate Effectively to Live a Better Life (Balance/Hachette Book Group, Winter 2025). Hoeppner reveals the common mistakes that hinder effective public speaking and provides the steps you can take to enhance your communication skills. An edited version of the conversation follows,…

The global chemicals industry, which outperformed broader capital markets on returns to shareholders for most of the past two decades, is no longer an outperformer. Fundamental shifts reshaping the landscape have caused a downturn in growth and profitability that could persist in this new era, stemming from lower demand, overcapacities, and global macroeconomic conditions. At this time, the Indian chemicals industry has delivered over 10 to 12 percent total shareholder…

While there has been a recent, notable shift in sentiment toward investing in climate solutions, it is important to maintain a long-term, through-cycle view, as action to mitigate emissions is needed more than ever. Corporate investments into building new climate technology businesses have been rising consistently from 2019 to 2023, driving growth for those actively investing, but current deployment levels of low-emission technologies are at only 10 percent of the…

La frase "boom urbano" prácticamente fue creada para la industria minera, con sucesivas épocas de euforia durante fiebres del oro, seguidas de caídas igualmente intensas. Este patrón se ha repetido durante la década pasada, con las compañías mineras sacudidas por una pandemia global, tensiones comerciales y conflictos geopolíticos (Gráfico 1). Muy pocas han podido capitalizar los períodos de auge para suavizar las recesiones. En cambio, como observamos en 2022, la…

Following a decade of turbulent macroeconomic conditions in which top-line growth has faded away and global consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies’ shareholder returns have plunged from the top to the bottom quartile, the CPG industry has entered a period of reckoning. As inflation slows, the industry must take up an ambitious dual agenda to reimagine portfolios for growth and reinvigorate performance to enhance operational efficiency. As McKinsey has written previously in…

March 2025For the first time since March 2022, surveyed executives foresee geopolitical instability as the top risk to companies’ growth over the next 12 months. In the latest McKinsey Global Survey on economic conditions, weak demand—which was the most-cited risk in the previous three quarters—is now the second-most-cited disruption, followed closely by changes in the trade environment and trade relationships. While private sector respondents remain more likely to expect improvement than…

So much can change in three months. In the December edition of our quarterly McKinsey Global Survey on economic conditions, respondents’ expectations for the global economy were largely stable with the previous quarter and more positive than negative. Now, amid a spate of policy shifts, uncertainty permeates views on the economy in the latest survey. Respondents are now equally likely to see geopolitical instability and changes in trade policy or relationships…

A just and inclusive society has long been a strength of European countries. The continent is a world leader in advancing social imperatives such as gender equality and, historically, socioeconomic mobility. Yet progress on the latter has stalled in recent years, limiting the economic growth that is vital for Europe’s competitiveness. Research shows that social mobility can accelerate productivity—including through greater workforce participation, better skills matching, higher consumer spending, fewer…

The downstream wholesale market in the United States is a critical component of the refined fuel supply chain, moving fuel from refineries to end users through pipelines and secondary terminals countrywide (see sidebar “Refinery-to-rack and rack-to-retail: Definitions”). However, many companies in this sector are grappling with the challenges posed by shifting macroeconomic and geopolitical forces. To thrive in this complex environment, operators need to make integrated, data-driven decisions to capture…

US midsize industrial companies are renowned for their distinctive technologies, widely recognized products, and strong brands. But in terms of performance, they could do a lot more. If they realize their full potential, they could collectively boost US GDP by $275 billion to $460 billion and add up to 1.5 million jobs by 2030, a McKinsey Global Institute analysis shows. What’s more, by raising their profiles and performance, they could…

Across sectors, companies are accelerating remanufacturing as a way to mitigate supply chain shortages, reach new customers through affordability, and implement high-margin alternatives for parts. However, those looking to build or optimize their remanufacturing operations face unique challenges, such as pricing a long tail of SKUs and undertaking accurate core forecasting—that is, predicting the volume, timing, and quality of returned products (core) that will be available for remanufacturing. Enter AI.…

Mounting headwinds in recent years have prompted biopharmaceutical companies to redefine how they create and sustain value. Over the past decade, the industry has produced major scientific breakthroughs, leading to improved outcomes for patients and strong shareholder returns of roughly 9 percent annually. However, companies are increasingly competing within crowded therapeutic spaces, asset life cycles are compressing, and major patents are expiring—all of which are compounded by stagnant R&D productivity,…

While it is increasingly clear that the contact center of the future is likely to be an AI-led environment, the pace at which companies will arrive at this future state is far less certain. Today’s leaders are faced with the difficult choice of just how far to go with their automation plans to retain the right balance between humans and AI as they build toward this AI future. There is…

Translating fashion’s decarbonization targets into action has proved difficult, as we wrote in our March 2024 article. At the time, we outlined six actions fashion brands could take to become more sustainable. Among those, one stands out as having the highest potential impact: working with Tier 2 suppliers to reduce emissions. Tier 2 production—the stage in which fabrics are produced and treated before being assembled by Tier 1 suppliers—typically accounts…

Spain is well-positioned to boost its sustainable fuel production and become a major producer as Europe accelerates its net-zero transition. The European Union has set a target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to the 1990 levels. To achieve this target, major changes are required in Spain’s energy consumption and efficiency, shifting from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy sources by embracing…

McKinsey analysis of the performance of more than 50 industrial organizations over a 15-year period found that those with a high service focus generated 1.7 times the total shareholder returns (TSR) of those that focused mainly on products. In the aftermarket and field services context, services cover a wide range of activities. They range from the traditional—such as equipment installation and commissioning, or repair and aftermarket supply of components and…

Organizations are starting to make organizational changes designed to generate future value from gen AI, and large companies are leading the way. The latest McKinsey Global Survey on AI finds that organizations are beginning to take steps that drive bottom-line impact—for example, redesigning workflows as they deploy gen AI and putting senior leaders in critical roles, such as overseeing AI governance. The findings also show that organizations are working to mitigate…

In the payments industry, open banking and account-to-account payments have experienced slower adoption in certain markets as they compete with card-based and peer-to-peer systems. In this episode of Talking Banking Matters, McKinsey payments sector leader Roshan Varadarajan speaks with Johan Tjärnberg, the Group CEO of the open-banking and account-to-account company Trustly. The following edited transcript shares highlights from the conversation. For more discussion of the banking issues that matter, follow…

In an era of persistent change, how can companies foster an environment that empowers employees to anticipate, respond to, and even leverage unexpected shifts in the business landscape? In this episode of McKinsey Talks Operations, host Daphne Luchtenberg is joined by McKinsey Senior Partners Dan Swan and Ruth Heuss, global co-conveners of McKinsey’s Operations Practice, to explore strategies and approaches to technology, workforce planning, and sustainability that will help organizations remain agile…

Recent years have seen the publication of a number of reports about how water and wastewater utilities in the United States can become more resilient, particularly when it comes to addressing rapidly aging infrastructure, optimizing operational efficiencies, and contending with increasing water demand. There has been significantly less discussion about how state and local leaders (including mayors and county offices) can help water utilities invest in resilience. We believe that…

Judy Marks is one of a few dozen women leading a Fortune 500 company. Otis Worldwide Corporation has been making elevators for more than 170 years, so it has seen its share of change over the decades. So has Judy. Not long after joining Otis as president in 2017, she quickly became CEO and led the company through a spin-off from its former parent to become its own, independently traded…