Hugo Sarrazin

We tracked the design practices of 300 publicly listed companies over a five-year period in multiple countries and industries. Their senior business and design leaders were interviewed or surveyed. Our team collected more than two million pieces of financial data and recorded more than 100,000 design actions. Advanced regression analysis uncovered the 12 actions showing the greatest correlation with improved financial performance and clustered these actions into four broad themes.

In today’s rapidly changing digital landscape, companies that understand their talent needs and know how to meet them have a competitive edge. Here’s how they do it.

Many directors are feeling outmatched by the ferocity of changing technology, emerging risks, and new competitors. Here are four ways to get boards in the game.

While most users scramble just to keep up with the relentless rate of innovation, the sectors, companies, and individuals on the digital frontier continue to push the boundaries of technology use—and to capture disproportionate gains as a result. The pronounced gap between the digital “haves” and “have-mores” is a major factor shaping competition at all levels of the economy.

Design was once largely about making products more attractive. Today, it’s a way of thinking: a creative process that spans entire organizations, driven by the desire to better understand and meet consumer needs. In this conversation, McKinsey director Hugo Sarrazin and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers design partner and former president of the Rhode Island School of Design, John Maeda, discuss how design has moved from the drafting table to the boardroom—and all functions in between. An edited… Show more

Design was once largely about making products more attractive. Today, it’s a way of thinking: a creative process that spans entire organizations, driven by the desire to better understand and meet consumer needs. In this conversation, McKinsey director Hugo Sarrazin and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers design partner and former president of the Rhode Island School of Design, John Maeda, discuss how design has moved from the drafting table to the boardroom—and all functions in between. An edited transcript of their remarks follows. Show less

It’s not enough to just sell a product or service—companies must truly engage with their customers. Here’s how to embed experience design in your organization.

People under 35 spend almost four hours per day on social media, and more of that time is being spent engaging with brands. Our research has shown that the volume of tweets targeted at brands and their Twitter service handles, for example, has grown 2.5x in the past two years. Similarly, the percentage of people who have used Twitter for customer service leapt nearly 70%, from 22 to 37% from 2013-14. McKinsey’s analysis shows that 30% of social media users prefer social care to phoning customer… Show more

People under 35 spend almost four hours per day on social media, and more of that time is being spent engaging with brands. Our research has shown that the volume of tweets targeted at brands and their Twitter service handles, for example, has grown 2.5x in the past two years. Similarly, the percentage of people who have used Twitter for customer service leapt nearly 70%, from 22 to 37% from 2013-14. McKinsey’s analysis shows that 30% of social media users prefer social care to phoning customer service. Show less

Companies should review their customer care strategies to take advantage of social medium. The article explore new way companies can deliver "social care" that can be more responsive to customer needs.

Catherine Courage champions user-centered design—not only for the benefit of the software company’s customers but also for its employees.

Meeting ever-increasing consumer expectations requires senior executives to place design at the center of business strategy.

While many C-level executives increasingly know that design should play a central role in business strategy, they don’t necessarily know how to incorporate it across their organization. It’s not as simple as bringing in a few design generalists—commitment to design takes serious time and effort. This article describes how companies can bring an end-user perspective and directive to the C-suite while moving quickly and strategically.

The role of a CIO has long been about keeping an organisation’s many IT systems running efficiently, implementing next-generation systems when appropriate, and doing it all at minimal cost.
With technology now becoming a core part of business strategy this is no longer the case. CIOs are reporting a massive shift is causing their role to change toward one of being their organisation’s curators of digital and technical innovation, and charged with bringing technology innovation to their… Show more

The role of a CIO has long been about keeping an organisation’s many IT systems running efficiently, implementing next-generation systems when appropriate, and doing it all at minimal cost.
With technology now becoming a core part of business strategy this is no longer the case. CIOs are reporting a massive shift is causing their role to change toward one of being their organisation’s curators of digital and technical innovation, and charged with bringing technology innovation to their companies. Show less

Snippets of information, often hidden in social-media streams, offer companies a valuable new tool for staying ahead.

Aujourd’hui, bon nombre de personnes échangent librement des renseignements et des points de vue sur les plateformes sociales. En repérant et en mobilisant ces acteurs, en utilisant de puissantes analyses axées sur le Web pour en tirer un sens stratégique et en canalisant cette information vers les personnes de l’organisation qui en ont besoin et la veulent, les entreprises peuvent développer une « intelligence sociale » capable de servir en temps réel.

Salespeople can use online social platforms to increase productivity. This includes understanding and influencing customer relationships, creating new channels for research, improving collaboration within sales teams, and increasing responsiveness to customers. Sales organizations in business-to-business companies, however, have only scratched the surface. While salespeople have long been known for their social skills, those who can hone their social media skills will thrive in the digital age.

Software is becoming critical for almost every company’s performance. Executives should ask what they can learn from business models employed by software providers themselves—and consider the implications for their IT function.

Social-media technologies offer plenty of ways for your company to gain valuable insights about your customers and industry — see our previous blog post. But they can also give competitors an up-close-and-personal view into your employees' ideas and your company's product plans, as well as its relationships with customers or clients.

"Buzz volume" is one of the metrics offered by a new generation of social-media-based tools that are transforming the way corporations gather intelligence about customers and competitors. "Consumer sentiment" is another: You can now get a reading on how customers are feeling about your products or services, your customer service, or your prices.

By offering decision makers rich real-time data, social media is giving some companies fresh strategic insight.

In a few short years, social technologies have given social interactions the speed and scale of the Internet. Companies will go on developing ways to reach consumers through social technologies and gathering insights for product development, marketing, and customer service. Yet the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that twice as much potential value lies in using social tools to enhance communications, knowledge sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises. MGI’s estimates… Show more

In a few short years, social technologies have given social interactions the speed and scale of the Internet. Companies will go on developing ways to reach consumers through social technologies and gathering insights for product development, marketing, and customer service. Yet the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that twice as much potential value lies in using social tools to enhance communications, knowledge sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises. MGI’s estimates suggest that by fully implementing social technologies, companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of interaction workers—high-skill knowledge workers, including managers and professionals—by 20 to 25 percent. Show less

As the marketing power of social media grows, it no longer makes sense to treat it as an experiment. Here’s how senior leaders can harness social media to shape consumer decision making in predictable ways.

Many mergers don’t live up to expectations, because they stumble on the integration of technology and operations. But a well-planned strategy for IT integration can help mergers succeed.

A new model for managing IT combines factory-style productivity to keep costs down with a more nimble, innovation-focused approach to adapt to rapid change

As telecommunications carriers invest heavily in new IP technologies, the path to profitability is uncertain—but the migration effort yields the best results when carriers get the basics right.

Telcos must institute lean approaches quickly because fundamental technology change and new competition threaten to increase the outflow of customers to less-expensive and more responsive telecom providers. Fortunately, now telcos able to make the necessary changes can adopt lean techniques faster than the multiple decades it took Toyota to go from an also-ran to near the top of the auto business.

Telecom companies play a key role in automating the sales and service processes of other sectors. Now they must automate their own

Tests were performed to assess the effects of processing temperature and laminate layup on matrix cracking. Twelve inches long and one inch wide cross-ply and angle ply coupons made of Fiberite T300/976 graphite/epoxy were tested. Coupons of different layup were cured and postcured at different temperatures. The number of cracks was determined from X-ray pictures. The results showed that the number of cracks depends directly on the maximum temperature reached during processing, and is minimized… Show more

Tests were performed to assess the effects of processing temperature and laminate layup on matrix cracking. Twelve inches long and one inch wide cross-ply and angle ply coupons made of Fiberite T300/976 graphite/epoxy were tested. Coupons of different layup were cured and postcured at different temperatures. The number of cracks was determined from X-ray pictures. The results showed that the number of cracks depends directly on the maximum temperature reached during processing, and is minimized when the 900 plies are dispersed (not stacked together) in the laminate. Show less