Value Creation

Industrial Distributors Value Creators 2023

Two decades of data show how leading distributors deliver strong shareholder returns. Distributors must generate local and national scale and fight to defend and grow their market share.

Value Creators in Insurance

BCG’s annual insurance value creators report explores the distinctive drivers of sustained value creation in each sector of the global insurance industry, and the winners who have overcome insurance industry challenges.

CFO Excellence

The Art of Capital Allocation

To help companies satisfy growth-minded investors, we outline best practices for the basic disciplines of capital allocation—strategic budgeting, project selection, and investment governance.

A Resilient Balance Sheet Pays Off in Uncertain Times

Companies can gain breathing room to operate under stressful conditions; withstand the scrutiny of shareholders, creditors, and regulators; and pursue market opportunities.

The CFO as the Architect of Zero-Based Transformation

The best approach to zero-based transformation comes from treating all spending as investment and making the CFO a key strategist for generating value.

How to Make Financial Steering Better, Faster, and More Efficient

Finance functions can use two related capabilities—dynamic planning and advanced business intelligence—to turbocharge their role as forward-looking strategic advisors.

Sustainability as Advantage

Investors Want to Know Your Sustainability Business Case

New BCG research uncovers the seven factors that distinguish sustainability announcements that create value from those that don’t.

Why the New Competitive Advantage Demands Sustainability

Companies can no longer simply focus on maximizing total shareholder returns. To win, they must hone sustainable business models.

Business Strategy

IBM’s Roger Premo on Open Source, AI, and Competitive Advantage

What’s behind IBM’s hybrid cloud and AI strategy? The company’s lead strategist offers an inside scoop.

Moody’s David Platt on Accelerating Strategy with M&A

Transactions have been central to Moody’s transformation from bond-rating giant to integrated risk management leader. The company’s lead strategist shares his philosophy.

Uniting Strategy and Risk Management to Seize Opportunity in Uncertainty

Companies can gain significant competitive advantage by investing aggressively in sustainability today.

The New Blueprint for Corporate Performance

The rules for boosting performance and competitive advantage are changing. CEOs urgently need a pragmatic playbook for building the capabilities to win in the future.

Digital Strategy and AI

What the Data Tells Us About Digital Transformation, by Industry

In our December 2021 report, Performance and Innovation Are the Rewards of Digital Transformation, we explored three questions that we hear a lot from clients. How are companies in my sector doing? Is there any proof that transformations deliver real results? And where are leaders focusing their transformation programs?

The Five Digital Building Blocks of a Corporate Sustainability Agenda

Achieving ESG goals and building sustainability as a competitive advantage requires integrating technology and data from the beginning.

Executive Perspectives

BCG Executive Perspectives: The CEO’s Dilemma

In this series, we examine the disruptive forces that are bearing down on business leaders today, so that they can understand where opportunities exist amid the uncertainty.

Strategic Planning

Bold Plans Do Not Come from Old Planning Processes

In this pandemic year, leaders who embrace bold vision-setting, backstopped by robust analysis, can create a once-in-a-career opportunity to change the trajectory of their organizations.

Building Your Uncertainty Advantage

For some companies, disruption is a risk to be avoided. For others, it’s an opportunity to be embraced. With better sensing, modeling, and planning capabilities, businesses can use upheaval as a catapult to success.

Family Business

Great Family Businesses Need Good Governance

By anticipating and addressing key issues, family owners can reduce risk, manage conflict, and promote prosperity.

Untangling Conflict: An Introspective Guide for Families in Business

Drawing on decades of lessons learned from the authors’ work supporting families and the businesses they own, this book guides family businesses through an introspective process that helps them determine their own bespoke approaches to preventing and mitigating conflict.

BCG Classics Revisited

BCG Classics Revisited: The Experience Curve

The experience curve theory still holds, particularly in specific industries. But to succeed in today’s environment, many companies need to develop an additional kind of experience.

BCG Classics Revisited: Time-Based Competition

The principles of time-based competition—a classic concept among BCG insights—still hold. But today’s companies must be adaptive, as well as fast, in order to succeed.

BCG Classics Revisited: The Rule of Three and Four

BCG founder Bruce Henderson’s rule, conceived in 1976, still holds valuable lessons for companies in many industries.

BCG Classics Revisited: The Growth Share Matrix

The growth share matrix—put forth by the founder of BCG, Bruce Henderson, in 1970—remains a powerful tool for managing strategic experimentation amid rapid, unpredictable change.