Harvard Business Review
Why Imagination Is Critical for Innovation
BCG’s Martin Reeves joins Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast podcast to discuss how to encourage imagination at work. Reeves’ research on successful organizational transformations suggests that imagination is often the missing link in the process of innovation. The Imagination Machine: How to Spark New Ideas and Create Your Company’s Future is his latest book, coauthored with BCG alumnus Jack Fuller.
Hindustan Times
The Priority Sector Lending India Needs
BCG’s Janmejaya Sinha and Ruchin Goyal write in the Hindustan Times about how the pandemic has highlighted the importance of health and education infrastructure, digital access, and securing financing opportunities for vulnerable populations. Sinha and Goyal say India owes it to those lost to COVID-19 to provide citizens with “minimum access to the basic social infrastructure needed for living.”
The Wall Street Journal
Christoph Schweizer Elected BCG’s Next CEO
The Wall Street Journal announces that BCG’s Christoph Schweizer has been elected the firm’s next CEO, effective October 1, 2021. After nearly nine years as leader, Rich Lesser will step down and transition to BCG’s global chair. Schweizer shares his vision “to support clients and global leaders in their moments of truth and in solving their most important and complex problems, to attract and champion diverse talent, and to tackle the world’s toughest challenges, such as climate change.”
Forbes
How 1.2 Million Dogs Are (Hopefully) Reshaping the Future of Work
In her column for Forbes, BCG’s Deborah Lovich considers how pets adopted during the pandemic may contribute to the reshaping of work, noting that “America’s beloved dogs are already a significant factor in what we do and how we think about returning full-time to the office.” Lovich analyzes whether benefits such as dog-friendly offices and pet insurance could become standard in the war for talent.
CNN's Quest Means Business
BCG's CEO Shares His Thoughts on Reopening Offices
In an interview with CNN’s Quest Means Business, BCG CEO Rich Lesser discusses the reopening of the firm’s US offices amid new CDC guidelines. However, it will not be business as usual. Lesser emphasizes that the business community must learn from this “forced experiment” and use it as an opportunity to transform how work gets done.
The Wall Street Journal
Bringing Workers Back to the Office, Without Masks
BCG CEO Rich Lesser talks to The Wall Street Journal about the CDC’s new guidelines, which allow vaccinated Americans to, in many cases, forgo masks and social distancing. He says BCG leaders will hold more meetings to determine the pace at which the firm should bring employees back into offices. According to Lesser, the CDC’s guidelines could “prompt more companies to ask employees to disclose whether they have been vaccinated, and it could spur workers to get vaccinated if they believe doing so will help them work without a mask.”
Axios
Bullish Investors Disregard Seemingly Bad News for the Stock Market
Axios covers a recent BCG pulse check survey of investors that gauges their impressions of the current market and their expectations for the future. Despite warning signs, more than half of respondents are bullish on the performance of the S&P 500 over the next three years. However, the survey also reveals a 10% decline in investor optimism in the index’s performance in 2022, compared with 2020. BCG’s Hady Farag explains that “the shrinking bullish contingent reflects the fact that valuations have expanded rapidly and the economic rebound is more priced in.”
Hindustan Times
How to Vaccinate 10 Million People a Day
In his article for Hindustan Times, BCG’s Neeraj Aggarwal writes about setting the ambitious, but achievable, goal of vaccinating 10 million Indians per day. He shares seven steps the Indian government can take to replicate the peak vaccination rates of countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.
Forbes
Coming to Terms with the Future of Work
In her Forbes column, BCG’s Deborah Lovich pushes organizations to “seize this once in a millennium opportunity to transform work.” She explains that a new perspective of hybrid work is emerging—one that can and should adapt to the personal lives of employees. Based on her discussions with more than 250 executives, Lovich outlines four stages organizations go through in the evolution of work.
Business Insider
How a Bionic Workplace Can Build a Resilient Hybrid Model
“When we come back into the world of mixing virtual and physical interaction again, companies really need to think about how they make it the best of both of those experiences,” BCG's Rich Hutchinson tells Business Insider. He and other BCGers argue that a “superhuman enterprise” can be created by combining technology with human adaptability. They outline seven steps for businesses to realize this type of workplace.
Fortune
At These Companies, AI is Already Driving Revenue Growth
In their guest column for Fortune, BCG’s François Candelon and Georgie Stokol write that “as the post-pandemic recovery takes shape, companies will have to tap into the myriad ways in which AI can boost revenues if they are to get ahead of rivals.” According to a recent survey from BCG and MIT of over 2,500 executives, only 10% of companies are generating significant increases in revenue by using AI. Candelon and Stokol outline three guidelines for realizing AI’s full potential: experimenting to refine the algorithm’s performance, creating new revenue streams using AI’s capabilities, and pushing boundaries to optimize revenues.
Forbes
What COVID Taught Us About Wellness and Why Employers Should Do Even More
In her column for Forbes, BCG’s Deborah Lovich continues her mission to convince organizations to use the COVID-19 crisis to change the way we work. Citing BCG survey data, she argues that companies need to act urgently—particularly in response to the great number of women leaving the labor force due to struggles with working from home—by focusing on employee well-being and the necessity of childcare assistance. Lovich says, “it’s time for [companies] to recognize that they should have been doing this all along and look for ways to step it up even further.”
Fortune
How the US Can Quickly Prevent Half a Million COVID Deaths Around the World
In their piece for Fortune, BCG’s Rich Lesser and Marin Gjaja propose a plan for US leaders and vaccine manufacturers to redistribute excess vaccine supply, potentially saving half a million lives around the world. They urge the global COVAX initiative to use its legal and operational frameworks to act now and donate excess vaccine doses to countries in need. Lesser and Gjaja emphasize that the current challenge is to ensure COVID-19 vaccines “also become one of our greatest humanitarian and public health achievements.”
The Edge Singapore
Scaling Climate Finance and the Opportunity for Singapore's Financial Sector
For The Edge Singapore, BCG’s Dave Sivaprasad and Andrew Hardie write about Singapore’s potential to become a global leader in sustainable and climate financing. They discuss a report from BCG and GFMA which revealed a $5 trillion annual climate financing need over the next three decades to transition to a low-carbon economy, and they assert that Singapore “offers fertile ground for climate financing success.” Sivaprasad and Hardie identify ten key actions for banks and capital market firms to undertake as they drive toward a “climate-positive future.”
AP News
Shift to Electric Vehicles Accelerates
In an AP News article syndicated by nearly 150 other media outlets, BCG’s Aakash Arora and Nathan Niese discuss the findings of their BCG study on electric vehicle adoption. The transportation industry is a major producer of CO2 emissions, so EV adoption will be crucial for President Biden’s goal of cutting US emissions in half by 2030. But the transition isn’t occurring fast enough to meet that goal. The BCG data shows that while EV sales are projected to rise from 12% of the global market in 2020 to 47% in 2025, “if half of new cars sold around the world in 2035 are zero-emission vehicles, 70% of the vehicles on roads will still be burning gasoline or diesel.”
