The McKinsey Quarterly Top Ten Newsletter 2009

Top Ten Newsletter 2009 Read our ten most popular articles of Q1 2009

1. BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY  Six ways to make Web 2.0 work McKinsey’s work with early adopters of Web 2.0 technologies reveals six management imperatives to help companies make the most of these new tools. This article includes a sidebar that summarizes the Twitter comments received since its publication, as well as a podcast featuring one of the authors. 2. FINANCIAL SERVICES  A better way to fix the banks Here’s a plan that could solve the toxic-asset pricing problem voluntarily—without requiring Uncle Sam to nationalize the whole industry—and make (pretty much) everyone a winner. 3. CORPORATE FINANCE Mapping decline and recovery across sectors Different sectors enter and emerge from downturns at different times. A look at past recessions suggests how some industries may fare. An audio recording of the article is also available.

4. BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY Five trends that will shape business technology in 2009 The year 2009 will be challenging for CIOs. Here’s how to play your hand. 5. STRATEGY Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers Google’s chief economist says executives in wired organizations need a sharper understanding of how technology empowers innovation. Read the interview or watch the video. 6. STRATEGY How companies make good decisions: McKinsey Global Survey Results Companies get a lot of advice about how to make good decisions. Which decision-making disciplines really make a difference? 7. GOVERNANCE The crisis: Mobilizing boards for change Andrew Campbell, a director of London’s Ashridge Strategic Management Centre, and Stuart Sinclair, the chairman and nonexecutive director of several companies in the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe and former CEO of Tesco Personal Finance, write that boards must change the way they work if they are to meet the challenges of the economic crisis. We asked readers who are directors to take an online survey of how their boards have since changed. A summary of the results is now posted with the article.

8. STRATEGY The new normal McKinsey’s worldwide managing director, Ian Davis, writes that the business landscape has changed fundamentally. Tomorrow’s environment will be different, but no less rich in possibilities for those who are prepared. 9. MEDIA When job seekers invade Facebook Soumitra Dutta, a professor of business and technology at INSEAD, and Matthew Fraser, a senior research fellow there, write that the increasing popularity of online social networking is changing not only the way people manage their careers but social networking itself. Included is a selection of some of the many reader responses we have received since this article was posted. 10. STRATEGY Leading through uncertainty The range of possible futures confronting business is great. Companies that nurture flexibility, awareness, and resiliency are more likely to survive the crisis, and even to prosper.