In about 1760, a few entrepreneurs in the north of England had the idea of using steam engines to drive machines that spun cotton thread—the germ of the first industrial revolution.

A bit more than a century after that, some European and American companies launched the second industrial revolution by embracing innovations such as electricity and electric motors, internal-combustion engines, production lines, interchangeable parts, and hierarchical, vertically integrated corporations.

Today our whole planet is being transformed by a dramatic, nonindustrial revolution based on intangibles such as knowledge workers, intellectual capital, collaborative networks, low-cost interactions (particularly tacit ones), and globalization.

Your business, your life, and your career will all change profoundly. This collection shows what companies and the people who work for them must do to succeed in that new world.

These articles illustrate the Quarterly’s best traditions: written by McKinsey consultants, they offer new ways of thinking about the challenges that companies and managers face today by combining the practical bent of client work with the fruits of extensive research. They represent just a small sampling of the knowledge and ideas available to you as a member of mckinseyquarterly.com.

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CONTENTS
Introduction
The 21st-century organization
Big corporations must make sweeping organizational changes to get the best from their professionals.
Lowell L. Bryan and Claudia Joyce
August 2005
Competitive advantage from better interactions
Tacit interactions are becoming central to economic activity. Making those who undertake them more effective isn’t like tweaking a production line.
Scott C. Beardsley, Bradford C. Johnson, and James M. Manyika
May 2006
The new metrics of corporate performance: Profit per employee
Most measurements of performance are geared to the needs of 20th-century manufacturing companies. Times have changed. Metrics must change as well.
Lowell L. Bryan
February 2007
Mapping the value of employee collaboration
As collaboration within and among organizations becomes increasingly important, companies must improve their management of the networks where it typically occurs.
Robert L. Cross, Roger D. Martin, and Leigh M. Weiss
August 2006
Harnessing the power of informal employee networks
Formalizing a company’s ad hoc peer groups can spur collaboration and unlock value.
Lowell L. Bryan, Eric Matson, and Leigh M. Weiss
November 2007
The next revolution in interactions
Successful efforts to exploit the growing importance of complex interactions could well generate durable competitive advantages.
Bradford C. Johnson, James M. Manyika, and
Lareina A. Yee
November 2005

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