McKinsey Quarterly is the business journal of McKinsey & Company.
March 2009
Courageous companies can use the downturn to make their sales operations not only less expensive but also more effective.
December 2008
Distributors may hold the key to high-tech sales growth in many markets.
October 2008
The Web is the most measurable medium in the history of marketing. Now all that’s left is figuring out how to measure it.
August 2008
Middle-market customers do tend to resist the hassle of forming new banking relationships. But banks that offer them the right products at the right time can change their minds.
Taking a phased “university approach” to change helped one company transform its sales force—successfully—in 6 months rather than the usual 12 to 24.
December 2007
Many salespeople resist cross-selling, so management must address their misgivings head on and convince them of its benefits.
August 2006
Executives hoping to transform a commercial organization must tailor their change-management approach to several specific challenges posed by sales and marketing.
February 2006
Although most of these companies have recently revamped their sales organizations, only a few managed to achieve higher sales and lower costs.
Optimization techniques used to plan operations can also be applied to sales and marketing.
November 2005
Incumbents can serve the whole market—without getting stuck in the middle.
August 2005
Some partners are more important than others.
Successful companies should examine all available channels and then tailor an approach according to their capabilities.
June 2005
Although collaborative relationships with customers can be complex and time consuming, when they are done well the rewards can be substantial.
November 2004
Migrating customers to a new channel can be a pain—for them, the company, and its channel partners. But the rewards can make the effort worthwhile.
August 2004
By integrating systems in order to generate transaction-level costs and revenues, companies can determine where to focus their sales efforts.
August 2003
A decade of change has upset the industrial producers’ traditional approach to selling. The time has come for many of them to change their sales channels.
Companies can earn higher margins or increased revenues by selling integrated offerings—if they don’t merely bundle their products.
November 2002
Merging companies should look to their revenues, not just their costs.
August 2002
Suppliers put off by open business-to-business exchanges might find that the newly emerging private ones offer a better deal—as well as four ways to play.
May 2002
General retailers use their expertise in a few core categories to attract customers, but over the Web they must offer more. Enter the on-line category manager.
January 2002
Users of the community features of World Wide Web sites really are more valuable than nonusers.
June 2001
Only if B2B e-marketplaces collect and disseminate information that isn’t available elsewhere can they provide long-term benefits.
Mixed results from the first wave of e-alliances offer lessons for deal makers who are negotiating the next one.
For sellers, B2B e-marketplaces embody the Internet’s least attractive tendencies. Is there an alternative?
Consortium-based vertical marketplaces were supposed to have high liquidity, but their real advantage is information. Neither benefit will materialize until their members make more than a nominal commitment.
Yes, Virginia—companies can create sustainable value on-line.
B2B exchanges can't improve the efficiency of every element of the supply chain. An improved information flow is what they really have to offer.
The first two waves of B2B e-marketplaces generally failed to prosper. But the next wave may benefit all of their participants—even the markets themselves.
An interview with Stephen Winterhalder.
May 2001
The latest McKinsey e-performance scorecard shows that one e-business in five makes an operating profit.
April 2001
Joint McKinsey & Company and Stanford University Business School’s Center for Electronic Business and Commerce research
February 2001
There is no one right way for an e-marketplace to charge for its services, but there are many wrong ways.
Successful e-commerce companies are following tried-and-true principles from the brick-and-mortar world.
In the present state of the e-nation, blindness to danger has been replaced by blindness to opportunity.
December 2000
On-line B2B marketplaces have a bright future in Asia—if they are adapted to fit the special needs of the Asian business environment.
November 2000
Many analysts think that profit and market liquidity—or their absence—determine the value of Internet companies. Yet the number of visitors their sites attract explains their market-cap variations better than either metric.
August 2000
Both mobile phones and interactive TV could help on-line financial services reach market segments that elude other devices for accessing the World Wide Web.
Round one of the on-line brokerage game was about adjusting to a new medium in a raging bull market of technology stocks and rising price-to-earnings ratios. Round two is about holding the client’s hand.
Incumbents have grown rich from customers who don’t manage their assets rationally. The World Wide Web will take away most of that income, but now that incumbents are finally facing the music, they are starting to compete effectively.
Mobile-telephone operators could compete on all levels of the mobile-commerce value chain—but they should think twice before they do.
It may be hard to create a successful business-to-business market-place, but ignoring the trend just isn’t an option.
New Internet-based players face more challenges than some of them—or the stock market—once expected. Even so, the Net’s advantages can be brought to bear on the mortgage industry.
The indifferent performance of virtual banks in converting the public to on-line banking would seem to hand the advantage to their traditional competitors. Yet most incumbents have been slow to meet the on-line needs of their customers.
June 2000
In order to create value for themselves—and keep it from shifting to competitors—businesses must choose their strategies for participating in electronic-commerce marketplaces.
Developing and marketing consumer profiles in the information age is a growth industry built on trust.
Europe is now playing catch-up to the United States in electronic business, but the European game may well have a different outcome.
Surprise! Europe will almost certainly take the lead in mobile commerce.
May 2000
On-line vendors must offer customers complete satisfaction or lose them to off-line rivals
February 2000
Internet pure plays may have won the first round of Internet retailing, but there is every reason to believe that store-based retailers will give them a run for their money.
February 1999
Are consumers selling their privacy too cheaply? Not for long. An excerpt from Net Worth predicts the rise of the “infomediary.”
On-line retail sales might be modest, but don’t underestimate the broader impact of the Internet.
November 1998
Salesforces will need to create value, not just communicate it. But even in the same industry, different customers see value very differently. Matching selling strategy to customer type.
Just about everyone who is (or is about to be) on-line has a bank, a broker, a credit card, or a mortgage. For a long time, the business has been a matter of numbers flickering from one file to another.
August 1997
Separating complaints from economic reality. When there is a conflict, there are effective options. Don’t overreact, but don’t get paralyzed either.
As consumers take control of information about themselves, companies will have to pay for it.
May 1997
New web-based competitors are positioning themselves as trusted, objective intermediaries. Most bank executives are following a “fortress” strategy—defending themselves while they wait for clarity in the on-line world.
The Internet offers consumer companies a powerful and lucrative marketing medium, but many companies do not even attempt to gather information about individuals. This piece reveals the value-exchange techniques that best-practice companies use to build customer relationships on the World Wide Web.
February 1997
If there ever was a communal model, say good-bye to it. What’s ahead is market-based pricing and a smaller number of interconnected but differentiated networks. It all means big changes for service, technology, and content providers.
August 1996
How online marketing could shift the balance of power: four scenarios. A key issue: information liquidity. Future competitors will include those who might capture information you want.
May 1996
Independent developments have accelerated the pace of on-line transactions
The wrong debate: the Internet versus on-line services. The distinctive value of networks is the ability to form communities. The basics of quality, cost, and convenience will still drive success.
Should banks and software companies collaborate, or fight it out? Both players have options to redefine relationships between themselves and customers. Trend toward non-exclusive arrangements and standards.
February 1996
Too often emotion triumphs over reason. Some improvements, like fixing incentives, can be made quickly. But emerging channels are hard to spot.
Competing in two worlds: the marketplace and the marketspace. New ways to create digital assets. Beware: many of the old business axioms no longer apply.
August 1995
Understanding what electronic commerce means, how key technologies will evolve, and what roles players might adopt will be critical to the strategies of companies in a wide range of businesses in the future.
The distribution of power between players in the new multimedia environment will be governed by proprietary, hard to replicate content and control of proprietary distribution. McKinsey has identified six themes to guide content providers in the emerging interactive environment.
Critical mass is now in place. Who will control communities with the right mix of content, fantasy, chatter, and commerce? From product manager to executive producer. You will need to be brave in these new worlds.
Battlegrounds are unlike those in the United States. The right perspective may be short term and tightfisted. Above all, protect your core business.
May 1995
Costs are just 60 percent those of traditional banks. Layering electronic channels on top of branches is the wrong answer. Cashing in on three waves of technology.
Are Americans using Europe as a dress rehearsal? Vulnerable incumbents. Strategies based on distribution are shaky. The emerging power of gateways.
February 1995
Up to 30 percent return on spending. The movement toward account profitability.
November 1994
A road map for navigating the industry’s current uncertain landscape.
How multimedia “gateways” develop will define, for years to come, many industries’ ability to create—and destroy—value.
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