18 April 2024By Andrew Kanutin[1]We updated our data on the impact of climate change on the financial system. How green are green bonds and banks’ loan portfolios? How strongly could they be affected by natural hazards? The ECB Blog discusses these and other new insights from the data. The ECB has updated its climate-related indicators. These data provide systemic insights, both into how financial markets are tackling the green transition…
Surveys are a wonderful resource for measuring the success of culture change. Many clients approach us with the awareness of a cultural problem…but an inability to identify the cause. And that’s where we step in, often using survey scores as an identifier. Let’s take “Client A” for example. Client A knew their culture needed adjusting, but didn’t know where the issue stemmed from. We sent out a survey, gathered responses,…
In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush talks with Ed Glaeser. Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1992. His latest book, coauthored with health economist David Cutler, is Survival of the City: The Future of Urban Life in an Age of Isolation, written…
At the beginning of March 2024, the European Commission adopted and published the European Defence Industrial Strategy (“Strategy”) and the European Defence Industry Programme (“Programme”). These measures were a reaction to Russia’s overall success, both amid its Special Military Operation, as well as in mobilizing the resources of its military-industrial complex. This step towards establishing a common military-industrial complex for the European Union seems logical, but one should not expect…
Peak disease burden for chronic physical health conditions typically occurs in an individual’s 50s and 60s, whereas the prevalence of mental and substance use disorders peaks much earlier—in an individual’s 20s or 30s. About half of all mental disorders appear by age 14, and three-quarters by age 24. When left untreated, these conditions can negatively affect lives and livelihoods. That’s why early diagnosis and intervention are critical for adding years to…
The Colorado River, “the lifeblood of the West,” is in trouble. Decades of overuse and drought have sharply reduced its water supply, threatening an ecosystem that supports 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland in nearby states and parts of northern Mexico. Steep cutbacks in water use are critical. But the seven states that rely on the Colorado River can’t agree on how much less each of them…
Politics increasingly drives where your team wants to live. Here’s how leaders can navigate the red and blue tensions inherent in place. Kimberly Merriman April 17, 2024 Reading Time: 9 min Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images The influence of politics on where workers want to live now has key implications for a company’s talent strategy. A survey of 500 U.S. real estate agents shows 32% of agents had at…
Quick Hits The FTC will hold an Open Commission Meeting on April 23, 2024, on its proposed rule that would ban noncompetes. The proposed rule would prohibit the use of noncompete clauses and preempt all state laws providing lesser protection than the proposed rule. The proposed rule would apply to any contractual term that functions to prevent a worker from seeking or accepting employment or operating a business, after leaving…
A lender rejecting your mortgage application can be stressful and time-consuming, and it might even mean you miss out on buying your dream home. A survey has found that most high net worth individuals aren’t securing their preferred mortgage. Read on to find out why and how a mortgage adviser could help you. According to Mortgage Solutions, 90% of corporate executives, finance professionals and entrepreneurs with average earnings of more…
Professor Steven Barrett has been appointed Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, effective 1 June. He joins the University from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro).Barrett’s appointment marks his return to Cambridge, where he was an undergraduate at Pembroke College, and received his PhD. He was a Lecturer in the Department of Engineering from 2008…
The clinical knowledge and reasoning skills of GPT-4 are approaching the level of specialist eye doctors, a study led by the University of Cambridge has found.GPT-4 - a ‘large language model’ - was tested against doctors at different stages in their careers, including unspecialised junior doctors, and trainee and expert eye doctors. Each was presented with a series of 87 patient scenarios involving a specific eye problem, and asked to…
In this episode of Talking Banking Matters, payments industry expert and McKinsey partner Roshan Varadarajan talks with Johnny Ayers, the founder and CEO of the digital identity verification and fraud prevention company Socure. As digital payments and commerce continue to expand throughout every facet of the economy, digital identity verification and fraud prevention are increasingly critical safeguards. The following edited transcript shares highlights from the conversation. For more discussions on…
Since this season of the podcast is all about the HOW of learning through experience, I wanted to talk to Annie Murphy Paul who basically wrote the book on learning outside the brain. She’s the author of several books, and I love to talk with people after they have had a chance to learn through the experience of their book being out in the world. In this episode, we focus…
Never in history have the issues surrounding privacy of data and code been more urgently debated than in the present era of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. As quantum computers become more capable, people will seek to use them with complete security and privacy over networks, and our new results mark a step change in capability in this respect. Quantum computing is developing rapidly, paving the way for new applications…
Quick Hits Minnesota lawmakers are working on bills addressing drug testing, earned sick and safe time, pay transparency in job postings, restrictive employment covenants in service contracts, and unemployment benefits for striking workers. The legislative session adjourns on May 20, 2024. In our March 27, 2024, legislative update article, several key bills were previewed, many of which have made it to an omnibus bills, along with other articles that may…
This latest update invites Microsoft Flight Simulator aviators to experience the allure of the cities of southwest Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state.Southwest Germany is the latest exciting enhancement to Microsoft Flight Simulator’s immersive global experience with City Update 06. This update focuses on the Southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg, the nation’s third largest state in both population and area. The Microsoft Flight Simulator team and its partners selected seven cities that best…
It’s often said that Brits are obsessed with buying their own homes. But it doesn’t end with our property. The popularity of TV shows like Grand Designs and Location, Location, Location proves we can’t get enough of the property market. As well as showing off the latest interior design trends or bargains you can find at auctions, there are some helpful mortgage lessons to pick up in the shows too.…
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, designed and used an AI-based strategy to identify compounds that block the clumping, or aggregation, of alpha-synuclein, the protein that characterises Parkinson’s.The team used machine learning techniques to quickly screen a chemical library containing millions of entries, and identified five highly potent compounds for further investigation. Parkinson’s affects more than six million people worldwide, with that number projected to triple by 2040. No…
Legislative changes are helping to set the pace of the switch to EV production. In particular, the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate requires that more than one in five cars manufactured in the UK in 2024 must be zero carbon emitting, and this proportion increases in the run-up to 2035. By default, these net-zero-carbon vehicles must be battery electric, as hydrogen fuel cell EVs and other powertrain technologies are not…
US healthcare leaders are actively pursuing innovative business models, including both vertical integration and pure-play specialization (Exhibit 1). However, the growth rates of these business models have diverged in the past few years. While no organization focuses on just one of them, business models that emphasize vertical integration have produced the strongest growth in the past few years, our research finds (Exhibit 2). Much opportunity remains across all types of…
Climate has long been held responsible for the emergence and extinction of hominin species. In most vertebrates, however, interspecies competition is known to play an important role.Now, research shows for the first time that competition was fundamental to 'speciation' – the rate at which new species emerge – across five million years of hominin evolution. The study, published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution, also suggests that the species formation…
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Beijing. Russia and China are organising various commemorative events. The healthy development of Sino-Russian relations amid today's complex and constantly changing international environment is attracting the attention of the whole world.Both sides have emphasised that China-Russia relations are currently better than at any other time in history. This assessment is a historical conclusion made by…
Canada’s financial-services industry seems to be a textbook case of an industry primed for disruption by fintech. First, its banking industry is large compared with other G-7 countries. Banking revenues of $180 billion accounted for 7.9 percent of GDP in 2023, compared with 5.8 percent in the United States and an average of 5.6 percent among other developed economies. Canadian banks are also more profitable than those in other developed…
Many companies develop AI models without a solid foundation on which to base predictions — leading to mistrust and failures. Here’s how statistics can help improve results. Thomas C. Redman and Roger W. Hoerl April 16, 2024 Reading Time: 9 min Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images People are often unsure why artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms work. More importantly, people can’t always anticipate when they won’t work. Ali…
LOS ANGELES (April 16, 2024) - Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced today the addition of a three-lawyer team to its labor and employment department further expanding its service offerings nationally and internationally. The trio of prominent employment litigators joins Seyfarth from Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP. Clifford “Seth” Sethness has built a formidable reputation over the past two decades as a leading labor and employment attorney. He joins Seyfarth as a…
How We Did It “Every company will have a slightly different approach,” says Nathalie D’Hers, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Digital, who oversaw the internal rollout to our more than 200,000 employees. “In our case, we zeroed in first on the roles that we knew would gain a lot of benefit.”It made sense for sales to get first access: After all, they need to know the product inside and out…
While inflation continues to be a challenge for many economies, there are positive signs in the UK and around the world. Read on to find out what may have affected stock markets and your investment portfolio in March 2024. Remember, volatility is part of investing and most people should invest with a long-term outlook. If you have any questions about your investment strategy or performance, please contact us. UK In…
September 2022 had the highest value of construction output (£15,125m) since 2010. While inflation has no doubt played its part, the prospect of rising order books has to be set against employment figures for the sector, which, as shown in the graph, have yet to return to anything near their 2019 levels. The Construction Industry Training Board’s (CITB’s) latest Construction Skills Network (CSN) report predicts that the UK construction industry…
Q: Nanoracks was founded in 2009. What was it like to launch a space startup at that point? There were very few space startups and credibility was low. Nanoracks was one of the first, if not the first company, knocking on the door at NASA saying, “Hey, if you give us some room on the International Space Station (ISS), we'll figure out how to use it.” A lot of people…
It was a historic moment for humanity. It was also an emotional moment for us at YC because we’ve been hoping this day would come since Blake was in the W16 batch, walking around with a plastic model of the plane he hoped to build. Most people know YC for funding software companies. But some of our most successful companies are the ones doing incredible things in the real world…
Many companies turn to transformation because their leaders seek to capture untapped potential or realize growth or efficiency gains. Yet transformations take work to get right. Our research shows less than a third of transformations reach their goals to improve organizational performance and sustain these improvements over time. In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, we talk with two transformation experts about how to beat those odds…
I am pleased to announce that we have just raised $7.2B for the following venture strategies: American Dynamism ($600M), Apps ($1B), Games ($600M), Infrastructure ($1.25B), and Growth ($3.75B). This marks an important milestone for us. When Marc and I started the firm in 2009, the conventional wisdom in Venture Capital was that in any given year, only 15 companies would ever generate $100M in revenue and those 15 companies would…
The government and businesses must work in tandem to avoid missing out on enticing opportunities in Southeast Asia, says Antony Shaw. Economic insights International connectivity
In recent years, the focus on personal wellness has been a growing trend. Indeed, data reported by Statista reveals that the forecasted size of the wellness market could reach as much as $8.47 trillion by 2027. While it may seem as though embracing mindfulness and striving to live a healthy life are modern trends, this isn’t the case. In fact, many philosophers and physicians from ancient civilisations had plenty of…
In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey Global Publishing’s Roberta Fusaro chats with Cass Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. They discuss Sunstein’s book Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There (Atria/One Signal Publishers, February 2024), cowritten with neuroscientist and professor Tali Sharot. It explores people’s propensity to habituate to both the good and the bad things in their lives and how that…
When Amazon went public in 1997, founder and then CEO Jeff Bezos’ message to shareholders was clear: His focus was on creating long-term value through bold operational investment. The following year, as promised, Amazon doubled its distribution capacity and more than tripled its inventory.And the rest, as we know it, is history. However, not many companies managed to follow in the footsteps of the tech giant, which by today, has a…
Every company understands how crucial return on investment is. But how many view return on talent the same way?Employees represent both an organization’s largest investment and its deepest source of value. In a world where businesses are navigating economic uncertainty, rapid technological change, and upheaval in the working model, it’s important that their talent systems emphasize both productivity and value creation. Having the right talent in the right roles—and giving…
A few years ago, researchers attached recording devices to a few hundred Americans and sampled their conversations over several days. They found that these volunteers spent, on average, 52 minutes per day having conversations about people who were not there. In other words, gossiping. Gossip is a ubiquitous feature of human communication, explains Michele Gelfand, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Everyone seems to do…
Sjoerd van Leeuwen/theispot.com Imagine a product that millions of people find frustrating to use because of a design choice that could have easily been avoided. If it were your product, wouldn’t you want to know who was frustrated by it and why, how to fix the problem, and how your organization could avoid making similar mistakes in the future? Obviously, letting a customer down is bad for business. Yet some…
The gains you can make before potentially paying Capital Gains Tax (CGT) have halved for the 2024/25 tax year. If you plan to dispose of assets, the change could affect you. Read on to find out when you could be liable for CGT and some steps you might take to manage a bill. CGT is a tax on the profit you make when you sell certain assets that have increased…