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Featured Strategy, Globalization Article, A fresh look at strategy under uncertainty

December 2008 

A fresh look at strategy under uncertainty: An interview

Although even the highest levels of uncertainty don’t prevent businesses from analyzing predicaments rationally, says author Hugh Courtney, the financial crisis has shown us the limits of our tools—and minds.

Recent Thinking

The Archive

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

  • December 2004 

    China and India: The race to growth

    The world’s two biggest developing countries are taking different paths to economic prosperity. Which is the better one?

  • December 2004 

    Facing China

    The country’s emergence as an economic power is changing the way people and companies everywhere live and work.

  • December 2004 

    What executives are asking about China

    The head of McKinsey’s office in China answers the senior executive’s most pressing questions about doing business there.

    Includes: Audio
  • August 2004 

    Governing globalization

    The public and private sectors must collaborate closely to ensure that all workers benefit from the global economic integration.

  • July 2004 

    A guide to doing business in China

    China lends itself to sweeping statements about the nature of doing business there. Most are unfounded.

  • July 2004 

    The McKinsey Global Survey of Business Executives , July 2004

    The second McKinsey Global Survey of Business Executives finds that corporate leaders are still confident—especially about hiring, IT spending, China, and India—though they’ve tempered their earlier enthusiasm.

  • July 2004 

    Understanding the Chinese consumer

    Laurent Philippe, the head of Procter & Gamble in China, explores how to beat the competition in the country’s huge and complex market.

  • May 2004 

    Offshoring goes on the offensive

    Cost cutting is only the first benefit.

  • February 2004 

    Corporations as global citizens

    Global corporations and the developing countries where they invest actually have symbiotic objectives.

2003

  • December 2003 

    Offshoring and beyond

    Cheap labor is the beginning, not the end.

  • December 2003 

    The next hurdle for Indian IT

    The cofounder and chairman of one of India’s premier technology companies argues that it has a sustainable competitive advantage.

  • August 2003 

    China's refrigerator magnate

    Zhang Ruimin, CEO of the Haier Group—the Chinese company that is the world’s fifth-biggest maker of white goods—describes his plan to create a global brand.

2002

  • August 2002 

    Taking Tesco global

    David Reid, deputy chairman of Tesco, the United Kingdom’s largest grocer (2002), explains his international strategy.

  • June 2002 

    Preparing for a financial crisis

    Companies can do much to avoid falling victim to sudden national financial emergencies. Although the tally of such events is rising, many businesses remain unprepared for them.

  • February 2002 

    Winning Asian strategies

    Although executives in Asia distrust Western corporate strategies, its top-performing corporations have already adopted at least some of them.

2001

  • October 2001 

    Whither globalization ?

    The war on terrorism may change the shape and pace of economic integration. But the fundamental human forces that drive it will not be dislodged.

  • May 2001 

    Lawyers get down to business

    New pressures are hitting the legal industry. Now is the time to think through your strategy.

2000

  • May 2000 

    What the WTO really means for China

    Membership in the World Trade Organization will make China more open to multinationals. Though industries such as banking and insurance may be transformed, in many sectors China’s accession to the WTO will have little effect. Nor is membership a done deal—in either China or the United States.

1999

  • November 1999 

    Dialog: Can a company ever be too big?

    Some people believe that "it is different this time." Others don't.

  • November 1999 

    Getting to global

    As globalization continues to play out over the next 30 years, geographic and regulatory barriers will fall, electronic distribution will start to parallel and even overtake physical distribution, installed capacity will become obsolete before it is depreciated, and focused competitors will attack like piranhas. Companies must restructure or die.

  • August 1999 

    Are you taking your expatriate talent seriously?

    To make the most of overseas opportunities, multinational companies must pay closer attention to the problems of executives transferred into them.

  • August 1999 

    Retailers to the world

    A “virtuous cycle” of self-reinforcing benefits will permit certain companies to redefine—and control—the industry. Even so, retailers still have enough time to build cross-border positions and local-market defenses.

  • 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.

  • February 1999 

    World Power & light

    The forces driving globalization are strong, but they will take time to play out. Already, meter reading is becoming a stand-alone business. Huge opportunities arise from huge productivity gaps: the best utilities lose 7 percent of the electricity they transmit, the worst 17 percent.

1998