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

NEWARK/BARCELONA – The effects of falling birth rates and rising life expectancy are increasingly evident in advanced economies like Germany, Italy, and Japan. Labor markets are tightening, worker shortages are worsening, and families are struggling to find care for aging parents. In some areas, declining student numbers are forcing schools to shut down.South Korea offers a stark example. In 2023, as the country’s total fertility rate plummeted to just 0.7…

McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) found that as of 2020, about 61% of the global population were unable to pay for their basic daily needs and begin to save. Building on the work of development economists, we established the “empowerment line” to measure progress towards a world where everyone’s essential needs are met.Higher than the international poverty line, the empowerment line varies greatly from country to country. In the lowest income…

US consumers are taking an increasingly active role in their health, seeking information from a variety of sources and considering new engagement models. As this trend continues, healthcare organizations must recognize that many of the assumptions that they have made about healthcare consumers no longer hold true. Addressing these changed expectations and interests can unlock substantial opportunity to engage consumers across their healthcare journeys more effectively and improve business results.It’s…

In 2013, SQM, based in Santiago, Chile, became the first mining company to adapt the principles of lean management to the complexities of extracting minerals in some of the world’s most challenging locations. Three years into the company’s transformation, McKinsey spoke with three senior SQM executives about the organization’s progress—especially the lasting benefits from changing the way people lead. Now, more than ten years after SQM’s journey began, leaders at…

Can a steel company build the infrastructure for the rapidly growing data center business? Nucor CEO Leon Topalian thinks so. Through a series of recent acquisitions, the company aims to offer customers made-to-order data center buildings with most of the components they require—cooling systems, overhead doors, equipment racks, and more—not just the steel that goes into them. That’s just one of the many opportunities Nucor is pursuing. With a history…

This is a special, bonus episode of The McKinsey Podcast. McKinsey Partner Ferry Grijpink joined McKinsey Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro to share some immediate takeaways from the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) event in Barcelona.The McKinsey Podcast is hosted by Roberta Fusaro and Lucia Rahilly. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length. Roberta Fusaro: What’s the mood in Barcelona? Ferry Grijpink: On the one hand, it’s very exciting. We…

Senior housing—the spectrum of residential solutions aimed at people over age 65—is a sector associated with many needs. By 2050, the world is expected to have 1.6 billion people in this age cohort, more than double the number in 2021. Due to the rising prevalence of chronic illnesses among the elderly, it is likely that less than half of them will perceive themselves as being in good physical, mental, and…

Although there is meaningful momentum, the world is not on track to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions in line with the Paris Agreement’s goals. Despite numerous net-zero commitments from countries and companies, and an increase in climate-related investments, global CO2 emissions are far from on track to reach net-zero by 2050. As the world considers how to meet climate goals in the aggregate, national decision makers will need a comprehensive…

A sleek, metallic car with a glass rooftop is depicted in a 3D image against a gray backdrop, giving off a futuristic vibe. Self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles (AVs), have zoomed around our popular imaginations for decades. In recent years, films and television shows such as WALL-E and Silicon Valley have poked fun at early versions of self-driving cars—and even further back, in the 1980s series Knight Rider, a retro…