Business, Management, Marketing, Money, Tax, Law, People

Is the US federal government as productive as it could be? It’s been a near-constant question for the past 50 years. The government’s role and workforce expanded considerably with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. By 1971, Richard Nixon had seized on productivity as an antidote to the nation’s economic woes. In 1988, Ronald Reagan issued an executive order to enroll every agency in a productivity improvement program. Later, the Clinton administration’s…

The growth of the Global Lighthouse Network (GLN)—from 16 sites in 2018 to nearly 200 today, across 33 countries and 35 subsectors—underscores the progress leaders have made on the original challenge the GLN identified: integrating advanced technologies at scale to realize significant economic and financial benefits. The latest Lighthouses, awarded in October 2024 and January 2025, follow the same core principles identified when the network began. Their leaders recognize that…

Imagine you were a railway executive with a contract to transport valuable cargo across the country. You wouldn’t have a different engine pulling each individual car of cargo. It would be much more efficient and cost-effective to hitch as many cargo cars as possible to the same engine. In fact, you would want a standard set of trains and connectors that would allow you to pull different kinds of cargo…

As President Calvin Coolidge said, in so many words, “The business of America is business.” One hundred years later, his words still ring true, as American businesses have a profound impact on American lives and livelihoods. American businesses employ roughly 83 percent of the US labor force, equivalent to about 136 million jobs—nearly half of which belong to small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. And of course, all Americans…

This report is part of a research collaboration among McKinsey, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. Open source software has long been a critical part of the technology ecosystem. Commercial software typically requires a commercial license or subscription and restricts access to its core technology. However, open source tools are developed collaboratively and made available to the public to use, modify, and distribute with far fewer restrictions.…

Cue the fireworks: The United States will turn 250 next year. It’s a big birthday, and as anyone who has turned 18 or 50 or 75 will know, a milestone like this presents an occasion for both celebration and reflection. The cause for rejoicing is clear: By many accounts, the United States is the longest-lived constitutional democracy in history. The reasons for reflection are equally evident: The journey to this…

The automotive industry is amid the largest transformation to occur since cars began to replace horse-drawn wagons. Electric vehicles (EVs) continue to gain market share, cars are becoming more connected, and autonomous vehicles are increasingly starting to appear on more streets worldwide. But the transition to new technologies has not been without challenges and twists, especially in the EV sector. After rising rapidly for years, EV sales growth has slowed…

Globally, semiconductor companies plan to invest about $1 trillion through 2030 in new fabrication plants (fabs), and the global annual revenue of the industry is expected to reach more than $1 trillion by 2030. This does not include the significant potential revenue from the adoption of gen AI according to even modest upside scenarios. Beyond satisfying market demand, these investments will also help regions increase supply resilience across the semiconductor value…

On this page: Opportunity | Solution | Impact 0 ptincrease incustomer satisfaction (NPS)0Kservice agentstrained in first round0%increase infirst-time resolution rates YoY The Opportunity Giving individuals the skills they need, when they need them Deutsche Telekom serves a vast customer base, including 23.5 million private customers, 2.4 million SMEs, and 300,000 organizations across Germany. With more than 15,000 call center agents and 5,500 field service agents on the ground, the telecom…

At Bosch Mobility’s Suzhou factory (a member of the Global Lighthouse Network designated in 2021), the integration of lean principles and Industry 4.0 technologies has transformed operations, enhancing efficiency and sustainability. The use of AI for predictive maintenance and automated optical inspection has boosted productivity and failure pattern identification, and extensive virtual simulations have enabled the site to achieve more efficient ramp-ups in the production of mobility solutions. Talking with…

Since the United States’ announcement of reciprocal tariffs on April 2, 2025, financial markets around the world have seen heightened volatility, raising concerns about the impact on the global economy. The combined tariffs enacted by the US government since that date have rapidly raised the country’s weighted-average tariff rate to its highest level in the past 100 years, from approximately 2 percent at the start of 2025 to more than…