Belkis Vasquez-McCall
McKinsey commentary
Partner
The survey highlights some significant continuity in terms of what sectors are prioritizing for their business-building efforts, and many of the trends are increasing. The focus on sustainability, for example, has increased in certain industries and highlights large corporations’ turn to business building, in part, at least, to meet their environmental, social, and governance goals. It’s striking to see, however, just how large a role technology has in generating and enabling not just new businesses but also new business models that generate value. The cloud and advanced analytics, for example, have enabled as-a-service capabilities, which are opening opportunities for businesses to shift to subscription models. That’s important to bear in mind, because we still see too many companies turning to tech for its own sake and losing sight of where the value is.
It’s worth noting with all the valid interest in technology, data, AI, and generative AI that physical products are still a core part of many companies’ business-building strategies. In the life sciences sector, for example, companies will continue to develop medical devices. But many of them—whether they’re large equipment, vehicles, consumer products, etcetera—are increasingly intertwined with the digital world. So not only will data and tech need to work together to deliver as-a-service capabilities, but they’ll also need to be harnessed to deliver and support physical products too.