BCG in the News

Financial Times

$10 Trillion of Insurance Needed to Cover Net Zero Transition

In the Financial Times, BCG’s Raphael Troitzsch outlines how the insurance sector can derisk—and therefore accelerate—a just, resilient climate transition. According to a new report from BCG and Howden, a global insurance intermediary group, at least $10 trillion of additional insurance coverage will be needed for the energy, road transport, and building sectors by 2030. This is a wake-up call about the essential role of insurance in the net zero transition.

Fortune

CEOs Wake Up from Their “Geopolitical Nap”

In Fortune, BCG’s Nikolaus Lang says that between regional conflicts and the resurgence of trade wars, business leaders around the world are placing geopolitics at the top of their agendas. Lang, who is the chair of BCG’s newly launched Center for Geopolitics, explains that many of today’s C-suite executives have always operated in an environment where geopolitics did not play an outsized role. “But in the past five years, [they] experienced a series of exogenous shocks they were simply not prepared for,” he says. “It puts a lot of pressure on leaders.”

Business Insider

AI Takes Over Cannes Lions Festival

Ahead of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, BCG’s CMO Jessica Apotheker speaks to Business Insider about AI’s impact on marketing and advertising. Apotheker says that marketers must set stronger branding guidelines for AI. Earlier this year, she barred BCG’s AI assistants from being anthropomorphized, meaning that they must have robotic voices as well as nonhuman names and attributes.

Forbes

To Meet or Not to Meet: That Is The Question

In her Forbes column, BCG’s Julia Dhar provides tips on how to evaluate when workplace meetings are worth the time and when they’re not. When a meeting is necessary, Dhar gives advice for leading a productive one, such as defining a clear purpose, providing pre-reads and clearly defined roles for the meeting in advance, and keeping the discussion on target once things are underway. “The truth is: with advanced planning, meetings can be useful tools,” she writes. “It’s up to you to use them properly.”

Inc. Magazine

The “Global Innovation Readiness” Gap

Forbes and Inc. Magazine highlight the findings from BCG’s 18th annual “Most Innovative Companies” report which reveals that 83% of companies see innovation as a top-three priority, but only 3% are ready to translate those priorities into results. BCG’s Justin Manly recommends that innovators struggling with the cost of capital look for outside partnerships for funding, not just at traditional banks and venture capital firms.

ET Now

The Year of Scaling GenAI

In an interview with ET Now, BCG’s Sylvain Duranton explains that 2023 was the year of GenAI discovery, but 2024 will be the year of scaling the technology to cut costs and increase productivity across sectors. He emphasizes that AI is not the solution to every problem. Instead, Duranton advises companies to use AI to create a high-impact solution to one or two of their biggest issues.

ABC News

The Shift Towards Low- and No-Alcohol Beverages

On Australia’s ABC News, BCG’s Elfrun von Koeller speaks about the growing low-alcohol and no-alcohol drink market. She partially attributes this to a generational trend: roughly one-quarter of Gen Z and millennial consumers say they buy non-alcoholic beer, compared to just 5% to 10% of older generations. Many beverage companies have begun adjusting to this trend by growing their brands’ low-alcohol and alcohol-free offerings, von Koeller says.

El País

Empleos verdes, una revolución en ciernes

La demanda de empleos asociados a la sostenibilidad corporativa aumentará en los próximos años debido a la transición hacia una economía verde. “Habrá una necesidad creciente de expertos en tecnologías limpias”, afirma Juan Ferrer, Managing Director and Partner de BCG en España.

Bloomberg

European Companies Under Intense Pressure to Transform

In Bloomberg, BCG’s Jochen Schönfelder explains that about one in 15 European companies are facing significant pressure to restructure this year due to higher financing costs and weakening consumer demand. New BCG research reveals that, compared to the rest of Europe, companies in Austria and Germany are facing particularly intense transformation pressure, with a third of businesses showing early warning signs of weakening performance and financial stability.

The New York Times

Emphasizing Joy in the Workplace

In The New York Times, BCG’s Deborah Lovich says employee joy should be valued by companies as much as efficiency and productivity. She explains that if employees enjoy work, they’re 49% less likely to quit. “It’s not necessarily a trade-off of one against the other. It’s not ‘you can make your employees enjoy work more or you could be more productive,’” Lovich says. “The art is looking for the double word score.”

New at BCG

BCG Announces GenAI Collaboration With Merck

BOSTON—Boston Consulting Group today announced it has entered a strategic collaboration with Merck, known as MSD outside of the US and Canada. The collaboration will leverage artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence (AI and GenAI) to potentially enable the discovery and assessment of novel drug targets.

Forbes

BCG’s “CEO Whisperer” Shares Insights from the C-Suite

In Forbes, BCG’s Global Chair Rich Lesser discusses business leaders’ perspectives on the US economy, climate change initiatives, and the growth of AI and GenAI. He encourages a spirit of exploration with emerging technologies, such as AI, and stresses the importance of addressing climate change. Lesser urges executives to ask themselves: “How do I act as a business responsibly? What can I do to promote systemic change that extends beyond the boundaries of my own company?”