The McKinsey Quarterly articles from June 1999

The McKinsey Quarterly archives from June 1999

Reader's Guide
June 22, 1999... Call them May-December marriages: an older, slower, company hooks up with a toothsome young start-up. USA Networks buys Lycos. Disney takes a stake in Infoseek. Gray-templed Goldman Sachs elopes with Wit Capital. Beneath the obvious charms of...

A Segmentation You Can Act On
June 22, 1999... Value-based segments usually don't fit neatly into demographic ones I Some solutions step around the problem; others meet it head on Remember when marketing was simple? Your division operated in a manageable geographic region. You defined...

No More Board Games!
June 22, 1999... To do the job properly, corporate boards will have to become more diverse, more involved, and more financially rewarding to their members What is wrong with the way corporate boards operate today? In essence, the problem is that they act as...

Brokers vs. Insurers
June 22, 1999... Massive consolidation has taken place among the distributors of commercial insurance over the past ten years. Three global insurance brokers--Marsh McLennan, Aon, and Willis Corroon--now dominate most of the markets where brokers are active. ...

Reviving German Life Insurance
June 22, 1999... Oliver B[ddot{a}]te Restructuring and consolidation are just beginning: Insurers will have to redefine their way of doing business The German life insurance industry--Europe's third largest, with more than 85 million policies in force and...

The Curse of Too Much Capital: Building New Businesses in Large Corporations
June 22, 1999... Large corporations often finance their fledgling businesses too generously I They should take a hint from venture capitalists Driven by ever-increasing equity market valuations and growth challenges, many large corporations are bestirring...

Do-It-Yourself Silicon Valley: Using Business Plan Competitions to Spur Innovation
June 22, 1999... In much of the world, the networks of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and service firms needed to create flourishing concentrations of high-tech businesses don't exist I How can they be created? A scientist or inventor working in Silicon...

Are You Taking Your Expatriate Talent Seriously?
June 22, 1999... To exploit overseas opportunities, multinational corporations must usually transfer executives into them I Yet these expatriates--a scarce and very dear resource--often fail, and many leave their employers even after they succeed overseas I What...

Retailers to the World
June 22, 1999... A "virtuous cycle" of self-reinforcing benefits will permit certain companies to redefine--and control--the industry I Even so, retailers still have enough time to build cross-border positions and local-market defenses For years, as leaders...

What Is the Market Telling You about Your Strategy?
June 22, 1999... Market expectations are hard for managers to understand and even harder for them to change I But there are ways of doing both that are much more science than black magic Many managers are confounded by the conflicting messages the market...

May the Sales Force Be with You
June 22, 1999... Lessons from McKinsey's 1998 packaged-goods survey Packaged-goods manufacturers in the United States have great expectations. A McKinsey survey of 24 of the country's leading manufacturers (see boxed insert, "The customer and channel...

Beyond Print: A Future for Magazines
June 22, 1999... The blossoming of the World Wide Web presents a vast challenge to print magazine publishers, for the Web at its most alluring will spawn vigorous competition for the attention of consumers and advertisers. With magazine circulation flat for five...

Dial "M" for Merger
June 22, 1999... With the day of the $1 trillion telco at hand, regulatory supervision is needed to solve the problems created by the European industry's accelerating wave of consolidation The recent battle between Deutsche Telekom and Olivetti for control of...

The US Military Is Losing the War for Talent
June 22, 1999... Keeping good midlevel people is the real problem--and the draft wouldn't address it The US military's personnel shortage is now so severe that a few academics, lawmakers, and military commanders are suggesting it may be time to revive the...