It Takes Versatility to Lead in a Volatile World
25/04/2023
The last three years have posed serious challenges for leadership. The inability of many leaders to rise to the occasion revealed that the talent crisis organizations thought they had before the pandemic is worse than they imagined. Research we conducted in the early stages of the Covid outbreak showed that leaders with a limited range […]
The next frontier of customer engagement: AI-enabled customer service
24/04/2023
How to engage customers—and keep them engaged—is a focal question for organizations across the business-to-consumer (B2C) landscape, where disintermediation by digital platforms continues to erode traditional business models. Engaged customers are more loyal, have more touchpoints with their chosen brands, and deliver greater value over their lifetime. Yet financial institutions have often struggled to secure […]
How to Equip Your Team to Problem Solve Without You
21/04/2023
Susan,* a client of Luis’ and a mentee of Kristin’s, managed her team with a fundamental belief that it was her job to “protect” them. Her belief was grounded in good intentions. She wanted her team to be happy and successful in a highly demanding and fast-moving organization. However, her approach constantly put her in […]
Mapped: The World’s Legal Government Systems
20/04/2023
Mapping The World’s Legal Government Systems With over 200 countries existing across the world with unique cultures and traditions, one might assume that there are hundreds of types of government systems. But both historically and in modern times, that’s not the case. Even while political regimes across these countries have changed over time, they’ve largely […]
The 8 Responsibilities of Chief Sustainability Officers
19/04/2023
The word “sustainability” has never been more popular in the corporate world. The number of companies appointing a chief sustainability officer (CSO) is rising rapidly: In 2021 more CSOs were hired than in the previous five years combined. But despite good intentions — and widespread acceptance of the importance of sustainability — there is still […]
A winning strategy for growth investors at a time of uncertainty
18/04/2023
Growth equity has become one of private equity’s fastest-growing segments in recent years, but today’s market uncertainty has slowed that momentum: 2022 was a year of disruption. Investors faced a multitude of downside risks, including geopolitical tension, energy and food scarcity, rising inflation and interest rates, stock market volatility, and supply challenges triggered by the war […]
Why Business Leaders Must Resist the Anti-ESG Movement
17/04/2023
The culture wars in the U.S. continue to rage, and they’ve come for business. Companies are being dragged into issues that stir emotions, such as abortion, gay and trans rights, racial and gender equity, and climate change. In particular, business is facing questions about its stance on societal issues mainly from the right side of […]
Top priorities for dairy executives in 2023
15/04/2023
A volatile economic, political, and environmental climate has affected the entire dairy supply chain in recent years. Executives of dairy companies have had to navigate inflation, supply chain challenges, labor shortages, and climate change, not to mention changing regulations and political conflict. At the same time, the dairy industry has been a site of innovation, […]
How Leaders Can Get the Feedback They Need to Grow
14/04/2023
When uncertainty is high, knowing where you stand — and learning about your mistakes while there’s still time to fix them — is more important than ever. To be able to adapt to changing conditions and ensure that your team continues to feel supported and motivated, you need to understand what you’re doing well — […]
Getting Employee Buy-In for Organizational Change
10/03/2023
Most advice about building internal support for organizational change reiterates perfunctory platitudes, reminding leaders to communicate reasons for the change, or even to be excited about the change themselves. But in working with hundreds of companies going through organization change I’ve learned that this approach is simply not enough. In fact, research shows, that this […]
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lighthouses 2023
09/03/2023
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is at an inflection point: companies and institutions have demonstrated positive intent and increased discussion and activity, but data shows that progress is slow. In 2020, the global market for DEI—that is, dollars spent by companies on DEI-related efforts such as employee resource groups (ERGs)—was estimated at $7.5 billion and […]
Is It Time to Shake Up Your WFH Routine?
08/03/2023
We’re approaching three years since the initial office exodus, where millions of people found themselves stationed at home full-time, overnight. The initial shock of that transition has worn off. So if you participated in the office flight, you’ve likely settled into some semblance of a routine. But is it time to make a change? As […]
11 Tech Trends to Watch in 2023
07/03/2023
It can be tough to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation. Each new year delivers the full spectrum of progress from game-changing breakthroughs to incremental advancements in a wide variety of fields. In a noisy media landscape fueled by hype and speculation, it can be tough to know where true value is being […]
When Leaders Struggle with Collaboration
06/03/2023
A client of Luis’s, let’s call him Charlie, a senior executive reporting directly to the CEO, was recently given feedback that despite his outstanding performance, his colleagues struggled to work with him. Charlie’s drive to deliver results, his no-nonsense approach to offering his viewpoints, and the intensity with which he approached most everything made him […]
Consumers care about sustainability—and back it up with their wallets
03/03/2023
CPG companies increasingly allocate time, attention, and resources to instil environmental and social responsibility into their business practices. They are also making claims about environmental and social responsibility on their product labels. The results have been evident: walk down the aisle of any grocery or drugstore these days and you’re bound to see products labelled […]
Research: Why Leaders Should Be Open About Their Flaws
02/03/2023
In the late 1980s, Canon ran a commercial with professional tennis player Andre Agassi that launched an infamous slogan: Image Is Everything. For many years leaders of all respects have embraced that sentiment, doing everything they could to come across as powerful, strong, and flawless. Yet, recent research has found that effective leadership isn’t about […]
Mapped: Geopolitical Risk by Economy
01/03/2023
Geopolitical Risk by Economy The Russia-Ukraine war highlighted how geopolitical risk can up-end supply chains and weaponize trade. More precisely, the war led to trade sanctions, a food crisis, and energy shortages. This graphic from The Hinrich Foundation, the third in a five-part series on the sustainability of trade, explores how geopolitical risk differs by […]
How to Motivate a Top Performer — When You Can’t Promote Them
28/02/2023
In many work environments, promotions serve as one of the few indicators of career success and advancement. But promotions have a long feedback loop. They often take years to happen, which means they mask the growth happening across the months and years before a promotion is conferred. Promotions are also not entirely under an employee’s […]
Linking Executive Pay to Sustainability Goals
24/02/2023
Global businesses have reached a sustainability inflection point. Stakeholder expectations and heightened investor scrutiny are putting organizations under pressure to articulate their societal roles more clearly, prioritize environmental and social objectives within their business strategies, and demonstrate progress to stakeholders. We also know that employees are prioritizing their employment decisions based on an organization’s purpose, […]
Mapped: GDP Growth Forecasts by Country, in 2023
23/02/2023
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early last year, talk of global recession has dominated the outlook for 2023. High inflation, spurred by rising energy costs, has tested GDP growth. Tightening monetary policy in the U.S., with interest rates jumping from roughly 0% to over 4% in 2022, has historically preceded a downturn about one to […]
Rescuing ESG from the Culture Wars
22/02/2023
In the past year, ESG investing has become caught up in America’s culture wars, as prominent GOP politicians claim that it is a mechanism investors are using to impose a “woke” ideology on companies. Former Vice President Mike Pence has railed against ESG in speeches and in an op-ed. A variety of Republican governors and […]
The power of goodbye: How carve-outs can unleash value
21/02/2023
The rationale for combining businesses into one company, or for splitting them apart, should be the same: to create more value. Yet we often hear leaders describe separations as the opposite of M&A integrations, at least in terms of “capturing value” in the near term. M&A, done well, unlocks value by realizing synergies. But it […]
Mapped: 2023 Inflation Forecasts by Country
17/02/2023
Not Yet Out of the Woods While the IMF predicts that global inflation peaked in late 2022, rates in 2023 are expected to remain higher than usual in many parts of the world. Following the 8.8% global inflation rate in 2022, the IMF forecasts a 6.6% rate for 2023 and 4.3% rate for 2024 based […]
Have Companies Become Too Specialized?
16/02/2023
Starting in the late 1980s, a de-diversification wave swept through corporate America, on the premise that conglomerates and highly diversified companies would perform better by focusing on their core businesses. At first this strategic shift brought benefits: academic research undertaken at the time found that all this refocusing was, on balance, beneficial for companies. The […]
8 Questions to Ask Before Selecting a New Board Leader
10/02/2023
Today’s corporate boards are under a lot of scrutiny. They must respond to activist shareholders, concerned employees, community members, and others in a hyper-sensitive political environment. They’re also tasked with ensuring diversity in their organizations, as well as their own ranks. Board leadership is more important — and urgent — than ever. Unfortunately, our collective […]
A CEO’s guide to the metaverse
09/02/2023
Suddenly, the metaverse is in the zeitgeist, for better or worse. Investment more than doubled in 2022 powered by big moves (such as Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, now under antitrust review) and small ones (about $12 billion to $14 billion of venture capital and private equity investment). Everyone has heard about the […]
What Do Your Customers Want in 2023?
08/02/2023
For many of us, a new year represents a fresh start. New Year’s resolutions offer an annual opportunity to transform our lives for the better, whether that’s by improving our health, relationships, finances, or whatever else we find most important. This mindset can create new opportunities for businesses as well — but shifting needs and […]
Prediction Consensus: What the Experts See Coming in 2023
07/02/2023
Prediction Consensus: What the Experts See Coming in 2023 In this, our fourth year of Prediction Consensus (now part of our more comprehensive 2023 Global Forecast Series), we’ve learned a few things about the universe of predictions, experts, outlooks, and forecasts. Experts are reasonably good at predicting the future one year out, though they are […]
9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2023 and Beyond
06/02/2023
In 2022, business leaders faced an increasingly unpredictable environment, with evolving return-to-office policies, higher employee turnover, and burned-out employees (more than ever before, in fact). In 2023, organizations will continue to face significant challenges: a competitive talent landscape, an exhausted workforce, and pressure to control costs amid a looming economic downturn. How employers respond could […]
How Women on Boards Navigate the “Warmth-Competence” Line
03/02/2023
The road to gender parity on corporate boards has been a long one, but there are signs of progress. In 2022, for instance, 45% of new Fortune 500 board appointees were women and the percentage of women on these boards had risen to almost 30%. Yet, the point of being a director is not simply […]
The Biggest Global Risks of 2023
02/02/2023
The Biggest Global Risks of 2023 The profile of risks facing the world is evolving constantly. Events like last year’s invasion of Ukraine can send shockwaves through the system, radically shifting perceptions of what the biggest risks facing humanity are. Today’s graphic summarizes findings from the Global Risks Report, an annual publication produced by the […]
How a CEO Can Create Psychological Safety in the Room
01/02/2023
There’s a power dynamic in every room. If you’re the CEO and you’re in the room, you control that dynamic. Positional power is consolidated in your hands, and what you say and do can draw people out or make them recoil with anxiety and fear. In my work with hundreds of CEOs over the past […]
The $16 Trillion European Union Economy
31/01/2023
The European Union has the third-largest economy in the world, accounting for one-sixth of global trade. All together, 27 member countries make up one internal market allowing free movement of goods, services, capital and people. But how did this sui generis (a class by itself) political entity come into being? A Brief History of the […]
How to Talk with Your Team About the Elephant in the Room
30/01/2023
No one mentions the hostility and blatant conflict between two team members. A colleague softens the data to avoid delaying the launch date of a project. At the Monday team meeting, the leader doesn’t mention the fact that two team members were fired the week before. These situations occur at many organizations, and they are […]
How Boards Can Guide Company Strategy on Social Issues
23/01/2023
For the past few years, we’ve been fielding calls from CEOs and other C-suite leaders who find themselves under increasing pressure to engage in — and take public positions on — issues that their companies would have considered outside their purviews only a few years ago. Recent research, including Edelman’s Trust Barometer, suggests that this pressure […]
Buy and scale: How incumbents can use M&A to grow new businesses
20/01/2023
In line with that goal, business leaders report that their companies are currently building 50 percent more new businesses per year than they did two to five years ago.2“New-business building in 2022: Driving growth in volatile times,” McKinsey, November 14, 2022. But as effective as building new businesses through internal innovation and organic growth can […]
Top Heavy: Countries by Share of the Global Economy
19/01/2023
Countries by Share of the Global Economy With 2022 over we we can recap many historic milestones of the year, like the Earth’s population hitting 8 billion and the global economy surpassing $100 trillion. In this chart, we visualize the world’s GDP using data from the IMF, showcasing the biggest economies and the share of global […]
5 Questions for Business Leaders to Ask in Uncertain Times
18/01/2023
These days, it feels like we are living in the business world’s version of Billy Joel’s 1989 hit, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Inflation, geopolitical tensions, energy shortages, labor shortages, employees’ evolving expectations, rising interest rates, increasing cyber and data risks, insatiable investor expectations — the list goes on. Just like the song says, today’s […]
Digital transformations: The five talent factors that matter most
17/01/2023
Digital transformations—whether digitalizing an entire company or setting up a digital and advanced-analytics (DnA) start-up within the organization—are a significant challenge. We have frequently seen these transformations stumble along the way, and leaders often have difficulty sustaining any improvements over time. Across the transformation journey, talent and technology are critical to success, from planning and […]
Innovating in Uncertain Times: Lessons from 2022
16/01/2023
Economic uncertainty, social and political unrest, environmental catastrophe, and global health crises continue to impact people and businesses worldwide. Yet, amidst each of these disruptions, managers must maintain forward momentum to ensure their teams achieve success. This past year we’ve seen tech giants fall due to mismanagement, recklessness, economic turmoil, a lack of innovation, or […]
HR’s new operating model
13/01/2023
The way in which organizations manage people used to be relatively straightforward. For more than two decades, multinational companies generally adopted a combination of HR business partners, centers of excellence, and shared service centers, adjusting these three elements to fit each organization’s unique nature and needs. Today, this approach—introduced by Dave Ulrich in 19961David Ulrich, […]
How to Grow Your Top Line in a Down Market
12/01/2023
Facing a tough economy — demand down, interest rates up, disruption and uncertainty everywhere — companies are cutting back. A survey of 3,000 global executives conducted by consultancy AlixPartners, where we work, reveals that 20% have already conducted layoffs, 20% expect to, and 25% have imposed hiring freezes. In addition, 33% said they are building […]
The U.S. Stock Market: Best and Worst Performing Sectors in 2022
11/01/2023
The U.S. Stock Market: Best and Worst Performing Sectors in 2022 The markets in 2022 were characterized by a lot more pain than gain. In the U.S., the Fed hiked interest rates seven times. Globally, central banks raised interest rates for the first time in years in order to combat surging inflation. The Russian invasion […]
Taking a skills-based approach to building the future workforce
02/12/2022
As a pro bono contribution to the alliance, we worked in tandem to assess opportunities and actual skills-based job progressions that workers have made. Using these data, the team launched a series of practical tools, including a job progression tool 5 5. Job Progression Tool, McKinsey & Company and Rework America Alliance, accessed October 28, […]
Adapting Your Sales Approach in a Downturn
01/12/2022
There has been plenty of debate over whether the U.S. economy is in a recession. Regardless of the technical definitions and economic perspectives, many organizations see challenging headwinds on the horizon. Even if companies aren’t feeling the economic pinch yet, they will be more skittish when it comes to spending when news cycles predict doom […]
Global Trade Series: Fragmentation in the Digital Economy
30/11/2022
Since its creation, the internet has vastly expanded sociopolitical and economic development around the world. This is largely attributed to the its ability to facilitate communications, data sharing, and commerce on a truly global scale. Unfortunately, a free and open internet will not always be guaranteed. Fragmentation between rival nations is growing, and it threatens […]
How Executive Teams Shape a Company’s Purpose
29/11/2022
Company purpose has mainstreamed its way into management vernacular, and with plenty of good reason. Evidence from across industry sectors has proven that genuinely purpose-driven organizations outperform their non-purpose-driven competitors on critical metrics. For example, brands that have a clear commitment to improving their customers’ quality of life outperform the stock market by 120%, and […]
Starting strong: Making your CEO transition a catalyst for renewal
28/11/2022
It is when we are in transition that we are most completely alive. What makes the top job so different from the leadership roles that come before it? To start with, new CEOs discover quickly that they are accountable for everything, that their reporting relationships have changed dramatically, and that the job is extremely lonely. […]
3 Steps to Prepare Your Supply Chain for the Next Crisis
25/11/2022
No one can say they weren’t warned about the likelihood of a global pandemic or a war in Ukraine. And, in the light of President Xi Jinping’s recent comments at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, where he reaffirmed his government’s commitment to take control of Taiwan one day, no one can say that […]
The digital revolution is brewing in the industrials sector
24/11/2022
Over the past 20 years, industrial players have pursued value creation through a focus on product margin optimization, channel sales excellence, and programmatic M&A. These strategies proved fruitful in the prepandemic era. From 2014 to 2019, traditional financial measures of value creation reflected robust sector-level performance: ROIC rose 13 percent—in excess of the typical sector-level […]
Is Your Board Prepared for New Cybersecurity Regulations?
23/11/2022
Boards are now paying attention to the need to participate in cybersecurity oversight. Not only are the consequences sparking concern, but the new regulations are upping the ante and changing the game. Boards have a particularly important role to ensure appropriate management of cyber risk as part of their fiduciary and oversight role. As cyber […]
Which Populations Feel Their Country is on the Wrong Track?
22/11/2022
Which Populations Feel Their Country is on the Wrong Track? Plato once used the allegory of a Ship of Fools to push for his vision of a wise philosopher-king as the ideal pilot for a ship of state. Looking at the most recent numbers from Morning Consult Political Intelligence’s Projections of Country Trajectories, you would […]
6 Ways to Reenergize a Depleted Team
21/11/2022
A client of Ron’s, “Kelsey,” a division general manager of a large food manufacturer, recently told him, “Everyone on my team seems tired…all the time. I ask them how they’re doing, and they tell me ‘fine.’ If someone asks for time off, I say yes. They get the work done, but it seems like they’re […]
How Companies Should Set — and Report — DEI Goals
14/10/2022
Can setting workforce diversity goals and posting progress reports help companies move the needle on diversity? This approach has spread like wildfire in the last two years. It’s too soon to tell whether the new fad is working, so we turned to past experience of firms that set goals and posted progress as early as […]
Revenue growth management: Building capabilities to sustain impact
13/10/2022
Key takeaways The growth of online shopping, supply chain constraints, shifts in the channel mix, gross margins strained by rising inflation—these are just a few of the headwinds consumer companies have faced over the past several years. Not surprisingly, revenue growth management (RGM) has emerged as a top priority for consumer leaders in this environment. […]
How Diversity of Thought Can Fit into Your DEI Strategy
12/10/2022
Nathan Green, known to many as Uncle Nearest, was an enslaved man in the 1850s in Lynchburg, Tennessee. He was known to make whiskey using a special technique he learned when cleaning water back home in West Africa. His method of filtering whiskey through sugar maple tree charcoal became known as the famous “Lincoln method.” […]
The Most Searched Consumer Brands in 2022
11/10/2022
In today’s fast-paced world, a strong brand is a powerful asset that helps a business stand out in a sea of competition. What are some of the most popular brands around the world? One way to gauge this is by looking at Google searches to see what consumers are searching for online (and therefore, what […]
Keeping Up with Customers’ Increasingly Dynamic Needs
10/10/2022
A mere 20 years ago, a song typically stayed on the Billboard Top 100 charts for 20 weeks. Right now, it’s closer to two weeks. Similarly, the skillset that would once last your whole career now requires a complete refresh every three to five years. Corporate longevity is also rapidly changing: in 2020, the average […]
Global M&A market slows in 2022 first half–but shows signs of strength
07/10/2022
But the 2022 numbers match healthy, prepandemic levels and are especially notable in a time of great uncertainty. Geopolitical instability, spiking inflation, supply chain issues, skittish capital markets, regulatory changes—all these factors, and more, are fueling uncertainty. And as Andy West, global coleader of McKinsey’s M&A Practice, says, “Uncertainty always weighs on decision making, and […]
Is Your Board Inclusive — or Just Diverse?
06/10/2022
The need for boardroom diversity is well-established. Many European countries have mandated that at least 40% of directors of publicly listed companies must be women, and similar laws have been passed in several U.S. states establishing gender- or race-based quotas. And to be sure, these policies have led to substantial progress: For example, one report […]
Five key levers for significant impact
05/10/2022
Sustainability remains the number-one topic across the packaging value chain, with corporations setting ambitious targets to improve their performance. This is demonstrated by our recent global survey of packaging purchasers across industries, which shows that approximately 75 percent of organizations have made clear sustainable-packaging commitments—but fewer than 30 percent are well prepared to meet regional […]
Visualizing the Rise of Global Economic Uncertainty
04/10/2022
Over the last six years, companies have had to grapple with five major “uncertainty shocks”: First it was Brexit in 2016, followed by the U.S. presidential election, China-U.S. trade-tensions, the Covid-19 pandemic, and in 2022 the Ukraine war. These shocks reflect a new normal of greater global turbulence, driven by domestic and international political fragmentation. […]
Keeping Your Team Motivated When the Company Is Struggling
15/09/2022
It’s not surprising to learn that employee motivation is flagging these days. Fear of a slowing economy has layoffs up 39% in the second quarter of 2022, bringing the year’s total to more than 133,000. On top of that, the great resignation continues to lead employees to exit toxic workplaces characterized by uncaring leaders and […]
In Uncertain Times, the Best Strategy Is Adaptability
13/09/2022
Senior executives often lament, “If we only had better forecasts, we could devise better plans.” They pressure their teams to come up with more accurate projections for how their markets will evolve, competitors will respond, and consumers will react — thinking that forecast precision is the key to defining winning strategies. But attempting to develop […]
Resilient Organizations Make Psychological Safety a Strategic Priority
09/09/2022
The pandemic, geopolitical instability, and unpredictable markets have made organizational resilience like food in the desert: critical for survival, but challenging to grow. By making resilience a strategic priority, leaders ensure that their organizations can stretch and adapt. Much has been written about psychological safety’s role in improving workplace wellness and even in helping stem […]
Managing Shareholders in the Age of Stakeholder Capitalism
07/09/2022
In 2021, Danone’s board of directors, under pressure from activist Bluebell Capital and Artisan Partners, ousted the company’s CEO Emmanuel Faber — a longtime advocate of stakeholder capitalism. This decision puzzled many observers; in an age where the business community seems to be readily embracing stakeholder capitalism, Faber and Danone were stalwarts. Now Unilever — […]
The Inflation Factor: How Rising Food and Energy Prices Impact the Economy
06/09/2022
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the effects of energy supply disruptions are cascading across everything from food prices to electricity to consumer sentiment. In response to soaring prices, many OECD countries are tapping into their strategic petroleum reserves. In fact, since March, the U.S. has sold a record one million barrels of oil per day […]
Leading with Confidence in Uncertain Times
05/09/2022
Serena crunched all the numbers and made the best estimates possible when she was preparing the coming quarter’s sales projections for the product she managed. She used lessons from her graduate studies in statistics and decision science. Informed by historical trends, economic forecasts, and market projections, she estimated a total sales volume of 1,000 units. […]
Digital Transformation Is Changing Supply Chain Relationships
12/08/2022
The digital transformation of businesses is creating new products, processes, and services. But to provide these new offerings, companies must share information and assets with each other in ways that were previously off-limits. For example, digitized services may require competitors to share physical assets such as warehouse space. This, in turn, means that companies will […]
The Great Renegotiation and new talent pools
11/08/2022
It’s the quitting trend that just won’t quit. People are switching jobs and industries, moving from traditional to nontraditional roles, retiring early, or starting their own businesses. They are taking a time-out to tend to their personal lives or embarking on sabbaticals. The Great Attrition has become the Great Renegotiation. Competition for talent remains fierce. For […]
What Makes Innovation Partnerships Succeed
10/08/2022
Breakthrough innovation introduces novel paradigms and platforms, and it creates new product families and economic opportunities. But it’s never a solo act. Even the largest companies need partners. Innovation partnerships offer many advantages. They offset R&D costs, add expertise and flexibility, and help create new markets. They can also accelerate innovation and commercialization timelines — […]
The $100 Trillion Global Economy in One Chart
09/08/2022
Visualizing the $100 Trillion Global Economy in One Chart Surpassing the $100 trillion mark is a new milestone for global economic output. We’ve covered this topic in the past when the world’s GDP was $88 trillion (2020) and then $94 trillion (2021), and now according to the latest projections, the IMF expects the global economy […]
Organizational Transformation Is an Emotional Journey
08/08/2022
The road is littered with failed transformation programs that were set up in the traditional way: Leaders define objectives, design a project plan, agree on KPIs, and recruit the right people. As many executives, academics, and consultants can relate to, the rate of failure in transformations is still far too high, and one that organizations […]
Navigating regulatory uncertainty in packaging: A new wave of chemical-substance regulations
05/08/2022
New, stricter regulations on the use of certain chemicals in the packaging industry are emerging rapidly: restrictions on bisphenol A (BPA) in the European Union and perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the United States being two of the most notable. With the recent release of the European Commission’s 2030 “Restrictions roadmap under the chemicals […]
How Greenwashing Affects the Bottom Line
04/08/2022
Consumers today face a barrage of green-friendly messaging from companies hoping to profit from increased concern over environmental issues. Unfortunately, many of these environmental promises don’t pan out. Research carried out in Europe found that 42% of green claims were exaggerated, false, or deceptive, which points to greenwashing on an industrial scale. This is dangerous […]
Ranked: The 20 Countries With the Fastest Declining Populations
03/08/2022
Visualizing Population Decline by Country Since the mid-1900s, the global population has followed a steep upwards trajectory. While much of this growth has been concentrated in China and India, researchers expect the next wave of growth to occur in Africa. As of 2019, for example, the average woman in Niger is having over six children […]
How Leaders Can Escape Their Echo Chambers
02/08/2022
The higher leaders go, the more likely they are to find themselves in an echo chamber, surrounded by people who think like them and agree with them. This occurs partly because of the affinity bias, which leads us to favor, associate with, and hire the people to whom we feel most similar. This dearth of […]
The power of the operating model in customer experience
22/07/2022
Transforming the customer experience (CX) isn’t about playing hard and fast. To succeed in the long game, companies need to manage it systematically. Doing it well is a game changer, which is why more than 70 percent of senior executives rank CX as a top priority for the coming years. Indeed, companies that effectively organize […]
When — and How — to Build Hurdles into a Loyalty Program
21/07/2022
Have you ever signed up for a rewards program, only to discover several months later that your points expired before you had a chance to use them? If so, you’re not alone. Research shows that loyalty program members lose up to a third of the savings they could have earned from these programs due to […]
Interest Rate Hikes vs. Inflation Rate, by Country
20/07/2022
Interest Rate Hikes vs. Inflation Rate, by Country Imagine today’s high inflation like a car speeding down a hill. In order to slow it down, you need to hit the brakes. In this case, the “brakes” are interest rate hikes intended to slow spending. However, some central banks are hitting the brakes faster than others. […]