Big data can explain the who, what, when, where, why, and how of retailing. Which projects are a flash in the pan, and which will fuel growth? We see three opportunities that offer high potential for retailers to generate a significant increase in revenues and profits in the near term.

In search of game-changing new ideas—and growth—companies are broadening their quest for innovation beyond internal R&D and traditional M&A. We have identified a suite of tools that can help companies discover and explore new pathways to growth, including business incubators and accelerators, corporate venture investing, and strategic partnerships.

The growth share matrix—first put forth by BCG founder Bruce Henderson in 1970—helped companies allocate resources based on two factors: company competitiveness and market attractiveness. More than four decades later, the matrix remains a powerful tool that helps companies manage strategic experimentation amid greater, and more unpredictable, change.

A wave of technological and customer-driven change is transforming the way companies deploy commercial capabilities, including marketing, sales, and pricing. Businesses can exploit this revolution to create short-term revenue growth of 10 percent or more, and at the same time fund long-term profit and new strategic capabilities.

Farsighted companies recognize that they can ride their next wave of growth by transforming their go-to-market activities. But rather than divide countries such as China and India into a few regions, they are slicing each one into thousands of segments to unlock local opportunities that would otherwise go unnoticed.

The university’s vice chancellor for information technology discusses his move to academia after a three-decade-long career at IBM and the transformation effort he has embarked on at Vanderbilt.

Research points to inefficiency in allocating capital among businesses as a major driver of diversified companies’ chronic undervaluation—the so-called conglomerate discount. Diversified companies can shrink the discount, or even turn it into a premium, through a role-based approach to managing businesses and the capital flows among them.

Getting digital innovation right entails more than just collecting ideas across the organization and “letting a thousand flowers bloom.” It demands directing innovation efforts at the areas of greatest impact and business priority.

Enormous value from big data lies hidden beneath the surface at many companies. Here's how some organizations are generating entirely new revenue streams, business units, and stand-alone businesses from the information they hold.

Without the revenue stream that sales generate, no company would survive. But too often, sales force effectiveness decreases over time. Here’s how managers can make even a high-performing sales force more productive—and increase the revenue and profits of the business by 10 to 15 percent.