In this monthly post, I highlight some of the best thought-leadership articles and reports that cross my desk. I note why they rise to the top of the pile and are worth reading (or skimming), even if they focus on functions or industries outside your areas of interest.
Among the criteria I use to make the selections are freshness and provocativeness of insights and timeliness, analytical rigor, depth of prescriptions, and overall readability.
Innovation for
sustainability:
Solving the plastics and
packaging challenge
PA Consulting
Tracking the trends 2019:
The top 10 issues
transforming the future
of mining
Deloitte
“
Insurtechs on the rise”
Bain
Securing software as a
service”
McKinsey
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Paying for value in
health care
BCG
Featured articles
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As we have seen, the quality of thought leadership varies greatly within a professional services firm and across the industry. But several firms, including BCG and McKinsey & Company (see below), are doing outstanding and timely work in the mobility field, especially with respect to electric vehicles (EVs).
In this comprehensive update from a January 2018 report, authors from BCG examine the evolution of the EV market. One surprising conclusion is that they underestimated how fast the market would grow.
Read the report
Who will drive electric cars to the tipping point?”
BCG
We saw a lot of smart writing on the risks associated with AI this year. This piece
from McKinsey is one of the most sophisticated that I read.
Professional services firms are also starting to get into the specific uses of AI. That’s what authors from Capgemini do in
a report on AI and cybersecurity, another one of the most critical topics in business and society. The authors set aside the hype and examine how AI can best be employed in cybersecurity. In a similar vein, authors from PwC look at the ways AI could change how CFOs do their jobs.
Read the report
Artificial intelligence
Winners: McKinsey, Capgemini, PwC
This author team from Deloitte takes an unusually detailed look at the digital shortcomings of the workforce and what companies can do to help their workers thrive in a digital world.
The emergence of business ecosystems was well chronicled this year. What most pieces failed to do was clearly define what an ecosystem is and detail its pros and cons. BCG’s Henderson Institute does such a good job explaining the ecosystem model in this piece that you don’t have to bother reading anything else on the subject to understand what’s going on.
Nearly every article about digital transformation bemoans the scarcity of talent in the data and analytics field. These
authors from the executive search firm
Spencer Stuart discuss how to identify and hire these increasingly important employees.
Read the article
Data and analytics and digital or organizational transformation
Winners: Deloitte, BCG Henderson Institute,
Spencer Stuart
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All professional services firms weighed in on some aspect of diversity and inclusion this year. Authors at the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles distinguished themselves by addressing the topic from the point of view of Asia–Pacific companies.
Read the article
Diversity and inclusion
Winner: Heidrick & Struggles
“
These McKinsey authors carried out a detailed global survey of consumers on their attitudes about EVs and sent mystery shoppers to dealerships to observe the sales process. The report is filled with prescriptive advice for automakers.
Read the report
Read the report
The road ahead
for e-mobility
McKinsey & Company
Back to top
BCG
Who will drive electric cars to the tipping point?”
Navigating uncharted waters: A roadmap to responsible innovation with AI in financial services
Technology, media, and
telecommunications
predictions 2020
BCG
Ready or not, AI Is coming to IT operations”
Capgemini
Scaling AI in manufacturing operations: A practitioners’ perspective
PwC
How AI will transform the CFO’s role
I try to avoid using more than one example of work from the same firm in these posts, but I would remiss if I failed to cite this superb and important report from McKinsey & Company on the implications of climate change on socioeconomic systems around the world. It’s a must-read for senior executives and policy makers everywhere.
Read the report
Climate risk and response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts
McKinsey & Company
I acknowledge electric power tariffs in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a narrow topic. But deep knowledge of specific areas can be a calling card for professional services firms, as this report from Strategy& (of PwC) demonstrates. Such expertise may provide the credibility to make recommendations that clients don’t necessarily want to hear. In this case, the authors don’t shy away from making counterintuitive policy recommendations to GCC governments.
Read the report
Electricity pricing reform: A bitter pill for GCC industries
Strategy&
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Read the article
Speaking of narrow, those interested in retailing would do well to check out this Deloitte article on the increasing use of augmented shopping—the application of augmented reality and 3-D technology to retailing. It’s not strong on prescriptions, but readers would benefit from the discussion of how the technology is, or could be, applied in various retail categories.
Read the article
Augmented shopping: The quiet revolution”
Deloitte
“
M&A is a bread-and-butter subject for professional services firms. This collection from Bain & Company, the second edition of its global corporate M&A report, has just about everything a senior executive would want to read on the topic as the year gets under way.
Read the report
Corporate M&A
report 2020
Bain & Company
McKinsey & Company
The road ahead for
e-mobility
“
Climate risk and response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts
Strategy&
Electricity pricing reform: A bitter pill for GCC industries
Deloitte
Augmented shopping: The quiet revolution”
“
Bain & Company
Corporate M&A
report 2020
BCG
Who will drive electric cars to the tipping point?”
“
McKinsey & Company
The road ahead for
e-mobility
Climate risk and response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts
Strategy&
Electricity pricing reform: A bitter pill for GCC industries
Deloitte
Augmented shopping: The quiet revolution”
Bain & Company
Corporate M&A
report 2020
“
“Who will drive electric cars to the tipping point?”
BCG
“Augmented shopping: The quiet revolution”
Deloitte
BCG
“Who will drive electric cars to the tipping point?”
Deloitte
“Augmented shopping: The quiet revolution”