Technologies that could transform how industries use energy.

As the world grows, in both wealth and population, so will the demand for energy: global primary-energy consumption is on course to increase by 25 percent between now and 2030. At the same time, concerns over pollution and climate change are forcing businesses and governments to think hard about how they produce and use energy. Energy efficiency, which is sometimes called the “fifth fuel” (after coal, gas, nuclear, and renewables), can play an important role in helping the world meet its demand for power and mobility.

Urban mobility at a tipping point.

Cities move. People hurry from corner to corner; cars and trucks roll along the roads, while bicycles and scooters jostle for space.

But sometimes that movement falters, and with it the dynamism that is the hallmark of great cities. Unhealthy smog levels and traffic jams, with their chorus of horns and shouts, are routine irritations of urban lives, and things could get much worse. The world’s cities are facing an urgent set of challenges when it comes to ensuring that fundamental rite of urban living: getting around.

Six building blocks for creating a high-performing digital enterprise.

Few companies need to be sold on the benefits of digitization. McKinsey research shows that companies have lofty ambitions: they expect digital initiatives to deliver annual growth and cost efficiencies of 5 to 10 percent or more in the next three to five years.1 Yet despite the often-substantial investments companies have made in digital initiatives, few see that kind of growth.

Europe’s circular-economy opportunity.

Europe’s economy has generated unprecedented wealth over the past century. Part of the success is attributable to continuous improvements in resource productivity—a trend that has started to reduce Europe’s resource exposure. At the same time, resource productivity remains hugely underexploited as a source of wealth, competitiveness, and renewal.

Megaprojects: The good, the bad, and the better.

Infrastructure megaprojects are crucial to the future of cities, states, and individual livelihoods. The problem is that these projects often go off the rails, either with regard to budget or time—or both.

However, it’s important to remember that building and maintaining infrastructure is a critical and sometimes even lifesaving undertaking. Sewage and water-supply systems, for example, keep diseases such as cholera at bay. Much of the Netherlands would be under water without the North Sea Protection Works, which guards that low-lying country’s landscape

The construction productivity imperative.

Around the world, ever-larger capital projects are being undertaken. Better project management and technological innovation can improve the chances of success.

Three factors are defining the future of large-scale capital projects. First, investment is growing fast. In 2013, global investment in energy, infrastructure, mining, and real-estate-related projects was about $6 trillion; by 2030, that, could be $13 trillion, according to McKinsey research (Exhibit 1).

Growing beyond the core business.

A clear majority of executives say their companies are pursuing growth in categories outside their core business—and report a strong belief that doing so has created company value. But a McKinsey Global Survey suggests that over time, companies’ aspirations to grow through these activities have produced only modest results and that few companies have the right practices in place to support such growth.1

A road map to the future for the auto industry.

Automakers took center stage at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. General Motors exhibited the Firebird IV concept car, which, as the company explained, “anticipates the day when the family will drive to the super-highway, turn over the car’s controls to an automatic, programmed guidance system and travel in comfort and absolute safety at more than twice the speed possible on today’s expressways.”1 Ford, by contrast, introduced a vehicle for the more immediate future: the Mustang.

McKinsey: The future of German mechanical engineering.

German mechanical engineering has always been the backbone of the German economy.

Even internationally, it stands for progress, performance, and reliability. In the past

20 years, it has been able to grow at 2.2 percent1 p.a. and to generate an average EBIT

margin of 3.9 percent.2 Hardly any other industry is so diverse, and developing with so

much rigor. Reason enough, then, for German mechanical engineers to confidently look

toward the future.

At the same time, there are signs of change. There is pressure from foreign competitors

with improving quality and lower-priced services even in industries traditionally dominated

by German companies. The international integration of markets is increasing, which in

Healthcare’s digital future.

The adoption of IT in healthcare systems has, in general, followed the same pattern as other industries. In the 1950s, when institutions began using new technology to automate highly standardized and repetitive tasks such as accounting and payroll, healthcare payors and other industry stakeholders also began using IT to process vast amounts of statistical data. Twenty years later, the second wave of IT adoption arrived. It did two things: it helped integrate different parts of core processes (manufacturing and HR, for example) within individual organizations, and it supported B2B processes such as supply-chain management for different institutions within and outside individual industries.

Idiomas

McKinsey