The So What from BCG

COP27, the global climate conference in Egypt, represented a mix of accomplishments and frustrations. Wealthy nations agreed to establish a fund to help pay for the loss and damage that their emissions have imposed on poor countries in Africa and elsewhere. And yet the current levels of emissions from the North remain stubbornly high, and will continue to affect nations in the South. Several membe...

We often hear that the climate transition must also be a just transition. But how can we make that happen when, for example, coal remains both the largest source of energy in the world and a source of steady income for miners in many countries? Keshlan Mudaly, a BCG principal in Johannesburg, South Africa, unpacks the many tradeoffs and dilemmas that confront public and private leaders in their qu...

It’s 2050 and we’re exploring how the world radically reduced carbon emissions and saved itself from climate catastrophe. What have our cities done to accommodate massive population growth? And how do businesses, governments, researchers and everyday people work together to build sustainable supply chains, agricultural practices and transportation infrastructure? This is Climate Vision 2050 , a ne...

How well will the world adapt to ever more extreme climate events? To date most government and business leaders are focusing on climate mitigation at the expense of climate adaptation. Charmian Caines, a senior partner at BCG, argues that they must do both. They should build scenarios assessing the economic, social, and natural damage of rising temperatures and develop financial and operational pl...

Corporate values are more important than ever. Should companies boycott countries with values they do not share? Kushal Khandhar, global Pride@BCG manager, argues it often makes sense for companies with LGBTQ+–friendly policies to continue to work in queer-unfriendly countries. Companies can be “embassies of values,” says Khandar who has worked in conservative countries whose governments outlaw hi...

Inflation is higher than it’s been in a generation, but policy makers still have room to maneuver. Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, BCG’s global chief economist, is concerned about inflation but not yet willing to say the world is in a new era of constantly spiraling prices and collapsing asset prices. Central banks and policy makers still have the tools to control potential contagion. This podcast uses...

Are companies looking for talent in all the wrong places? Only 10% of jobs are filled by internal lateral candidates. Companies need better ways to find internal candidates especially those who work in a different part of the organization or have latent skills, explain BCG's Nithya Vaduganathan and Gloat's Brian Hershey. Internal talent marketplaces, which are sort of dating apps matching employee...

Are traditional companies, long derided for being sluggish and stuck in the past, about to undergo a renaissance? Patrick Forth, of BCG’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications practice, talks about the exciting future for incumbents that succeed at digital transformation. Unfortunately, only one-third of digital transformations are successful. What separates the winners from the losers? After...

The future of the tech industry depends on women. So how do you grow that tech career, and why is imposter syndrome sometimes a good thing? In this episode, hear from our new podcast series  In Her Ellement , where AI expert Andrea Gallego and product designer Corin Lines from Boston Consulting Group have honest conversations with women at the vanguard of technology in business, art...

Johann Harnoss doesn’t just advise companies on innovation and global talent mobility. He also has cofounded a nonprofit organization to help students from nations such as Syria and Afghanistan secure jobs in Europe. In other words, Harnoss has seen global talent from both sides. He debunks notions that immigration is harmful to host nations or that it leads to a brain drain from countries of orig...

In an interconnected world, global health is not just a scientific aspiration but an economic one. As supply shortages brought on by factory shutdowns in China demonstrate, a disease outbreak in one part of the world has ramifications on the other side of the globe. Johanna Benesty, who leads BCG’s global health work, talks about the opportunities for pharmaceutical and other health care companies...

Companies will never achieve net zero unless they can measure their emissions, and few of them do it successfully. Only about one in ten companies accurately tracks its emissions. Artificial intelligence is starting to help fill in the data gaps. Charlotte Degot, BCG partner, and founder of CO2 AI by BCG, an an AI-based solution for emissions measurement and reduction, explains how better data abo...

While the world races ahead into the metaverse, education remains rooted in the era of neat orderly rows of desks and lesson plans. In this wide-ranging conversation, Leila Hoteit, the managing director and senior partner who leads BCG’s education, employment, and welfare work, argues for a lifelong approach to learning inside and outside the classroom—one that teaches people to solve hard problem...

Over the past two years, the world has seen what happens when supply and procurement chains seize up and shortages in such staples as infant formula and sunflower oil become commonplace. Daniel Weise, leader of BCG’s global procurement business, explains how companies can move beyond a cost-cutting mentality to treat their supply chain as a strategic imperative—the way that Apple did when it promo...

A Pride@BCG leader talks about how a supportive culture unlocks creativity. For Dakota Santana-Grace, being out at work is a professional necessity as much as a personal choice. When Santana-Grace once hid his queer identity from a client, he was stressed and exhausted, and his work suffered. The weight of his secret lifted after Santana-Grace, BCG’s Northeast lead for Pride @BCG , casually mentio...

Corporate leaders often view sustainable products as a series of technical challenges—how to decarbonize the supply chain, reduce waste in manufacturing, eliminate plastic packaging, and so on. But what about the human dimensions? Shalini Unnikrishnan, a leader on social impact at BCG, discusses the importance of designing, marketing, and pricing products through the lens of the consumer. She also...

Nan DasGupta played soccer in her youth and worked as an engineer at GE early in her career, so she has firsthand experience breaking into male-dominated realms. DasGupta, BCG people and organization expert and Women@BCG leader, talks about the difficulties in breaking down bias at work, how bias prevents men from assuming more caregiving responsibilities, the importance of role models, and why no...

Businesses that lead on climate and sustainability will have tailwinds at their back, says Rich Lesser, BCG’s global chair. Reaching net zero will require investments of $3 trillion to $5 trillion per year for the next 30 years—and it is much smarter to participate in this massive industrial transformation than to fight it. To succeed, businesses will need to engage deeply with other businesses, t...

Pay, promotion, and benefits have been the traditional carrots for hiring and retaining employees. But what happens when they are not enough? During the Great Resignation, companies have watched well-paid, decorated employees walk out the door. They have watched front-line workers who had just received raises walk. Why? The emotional needs of employees are as critical as their functional needs, sa...

As the travel industry slowly awakens from the pandemic-induced slumber, airlines, hotel chains, and cruise lines face a highly uncertain and volatile future in which the past is unlikely prologue. Jason Guggenheim, BCG’s global leader of travel and tourism, explains that these companies can sharpen their ability to sense subtle shifts in demand. Will business travel, for example, ever fully retur...

Neveen Awad, the daughter of an engineer, learned early in life “how fun it was to make machines do something.” As the only computer science major in her graduating class at college and later a PhD, she eventually realized that she did not want to spend her days coding. Awad became a professor and now runs BCG’s Detroit office. She’s spent the past few years researching gender diversity in technol...

Why do CEOs struggle with the act of imagination when it comes naturally to 5-year-olds? And what happens when people and organizations seemingly lose their ability to imagine? Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, argues that imagination is an untapped and essential resource for organizations. This is particularly true in an error when competitive advantages that once lasted a d...

Organizations often view inclusion, along with its cousins diversity and equity, as a goal. But what if they start viewing it as a practice, an active commitment, and a way of doing business? Kedra Newsom Reeves, a BCG partner and co-lead of BCG’s North America Center for Inclusion and Equity who works for financial and social sector clients alike, argues that organizations must deeply embed inclu...

Cell phones, social media, messaging software, and multitasking are robbing our attention, as our monkey minds jump from one notification to another. Mickey McManus, a BCG senior advisor and leadership coach, explains how these distractions strip our cognitive capacity and even our ability to make ethical decisions. Is this the price of “progress,” or is there something to be done? McManus offers...

Ashley Grice finds great joy, meaning, and sometimes peril in words. As the CEO of BCG BrightHouse, Grice helps organizations find their purpose. Words are her instruments of trade. They can help bring strategy to life and inspire imagination and wonder. But by choosing words that are impersonal, flat, and cold, CEOs and other leaders frequently miss the chance to connect with their people. Grice...