The McKinsey Quarterly

close Visitor Edition

McKinsey Quarterly is the business journal of McKinsey & Company.

featured Food & Agriculture, Strategy & Analysis article, biofuels industry

May 2007 

Betting on biofuels

The industry is still in its infancy but evolving rapidly. Companies that hope to compete must devise their entry strategy now.

Recent Thinking

The Archive

2005

  • February 2005 

    Lean cuisine

    Proven techniques from manufacturing might be the recipe for improving productivity in restaurants.

2004

2003

  • December 2003 

    Turkey’s quest for stable growth

    Turkey has come a long way, but the informal economy, macroeconomic and political instability, and state ownership continue to hold it back.

  • May 2003 

    Fast-food fight

    Companies offering fresh food in distinctive settings will hit the sweet spot of an otherwise slow-growing fast-food industry.

2002

  • August 2002 

    A value culture for agriculture

    To become high-performing businesses, agricultural co-ops must move away from their traditional role as service providers.

2001

  • February 2001 

    A new wool order

    The wool industry’s share of New Zealand’s total export revenue has dropped to 4 percent—from ten times that in the 1950s—with a similar drop in profitability. The solution? Raise productivity, not prices.

2000

  • June 2000 

    Bagging Europe’s groceries

    Takeovers in Europe’s grocery-retailing sector work best on the national level. But pressure to grow and the “Wal-Mart factor” are forcing big supermarket chains to look abroad.

  • May 2000 

    Using plants as plants

    Biotechnology will transform the production of chemicals. Here’s why.

1999

  • November 1999 

    You want profits with that?

    Revenues in the quick-service restaurant industry have boomed; returns have not. What can such companies do to beef up their profits at a time when they have to work hard to attract not only customers but also employees?

  • February 1999 

    Global beer: What’s on Tap?

    The brewers, if not the beer, won’t all be alike; they are beginning to consolidate around segments of the business.

1998

  • August 1998 

    Gold from noodles

    Can you make money in China’s packaged food market? There are many recipes for disaster. Three lessons: price for high affordability, rush for scale, and invest in people, not assets.

  • February 1998 

    Food for West Africa

    West Africa uses scarce resources to import food. Western companies can now play a big role either through direct investment or via alliances. A market of 225 million people.

1997

1996

  • May 1996 

    Nestlé: The visions of local managers

    Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, then (1996) Nestlé’s CEO-elect, talks about his long-term views on globalization. And chocolate.

  • February 1996 

    Growing in the food industry

    For much of the 1980s, food and packaged goods companies could do no wrong. More recently, however, industry performance has come crashing back to earth.

New In:
Embed E-mail