A European telecommunications company wanted to lower the cost of its customer service operations but worried about the potential loss of revenue from the cross-selling that its traditional call centers did so well. So-called e-care solved the problem.
Customers have been spoiled. Thanks to companies such as Amazon and Apple, they now expect every organization to deliver products and services swiftly, with a seamless user experience. Are your processes up to that level of expectation?
Investors and multinationals are increasingly turning their gaze southward to the ten dynamic markets that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Research McKinsey conducted in partnership with the World Economic Forum suggests that companies are struggling with their capabilities in cyber-risk management.
A lot of people view China business as mysterious. Relax. Consumers behave pretty much the same everywhere. Competition is pretty much the same everywhere. You just need to ignore the hype and focus on the basic fact that in China today, there are six big trends. That's it. Six trends shape most of the country’s industries and drive much of China's impact on the Western world.
Lean is one of the biggest management ideas of the past 50 years. No less than Ford's original assembly line, it has transformed how leading companies think about operations - starting in assembly plants and other factory settings and moving more recently into services ranging from retailing and health care to financial services, IT, and even the public sector. Yet despite lean's trajectory, broad influence, and level of general familiarity among senior executives, it would be a mistake to think that it has reached its full potential.
Even the world's biggest brands can struggle to succeed in India. Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent urges global companies to accept the market as it is, not as they wish it to be.
Over the past 30 years, most companies have added new C-level roles in response to changing business environments. The chief financial officer role, which didn't exist at a majority of companies in the mid-1980s, rose to prominence as pressures for value management and more transparent investor relations gained traction. Adding a chief marketing officer became crucial as new channels and media raised the complexity of brand building and customer engagement. Chief strategy officers joined top teams to help companies address increasingly complex and fast-changing global markets. Today, the power of data and analytics is profoundly altering the business landscape, and once again companies may need more top-management muscle.
Cities have long been the world's economic dynamos, but today the speed and scale of their expansion are unprecedented. Through a combination of consumption and investment in physical capital, growing cities could inject up to $30tr a year into the world economy by 2025. Understanding cities and their shifting demographics is critical to reaching urban consumers and to preparing for the challenges that will arise from increasing demand for natural resources (such as water and energy) and for capital to invest in new housing, office buildings, and port capacity.