Small businesses power the U.S. economy. They are not leaders in the online-advertising world, however. A BCG survey suggests that despite the explosive growth in digital marketing through social media and mobile communications, small businesses still favor very traditional channels when it comes to spending their advertising dollars.

Patrick Eltridge, CIO of Australia's Telstra, discusses his transformation of the company's IT function, his emphasis on cloud and agile technologies, and the challenges he sees ahead for the industry, especially its IT.

By 2020, $10 trillion in annual consumer spending in China and India will mean big business opportunities as well as challenging second-order consequences. Soaring demand for globally traded commodities such as corn and soybeans will “boomerang” worldwide, leading to price volatility and a painful squeeze on energy, water, and food supplies.

Ambidexterity—the ability to excel simultaneously in efficiency and innovation—is a rare but increasingly critical capability in today's complex business environment. There are four distinct approaches to achieving it, and the suitability of each one depends on the diversity and dynamism of the specific company's environment.

Africa’s growing economies, rising incomes, and expanding urbanization are creating a new consumer class that has both increasing purchasing power and a hunger for products and services that once seemed unattainable. Certainly, Africa is not easily pigeonholed, and making generalizations about its consumers is a risky proposition. But companies that acknowledge several commonalities among the emerging African consumers will be poised to capture this group’s explosive, and often underestimated, growth.

Maintaining military leadership in the face of reduced resources is a daunting task. In this podcast, Michèle Flournoy reflects on her time as U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, describing how she managed tough trade-offs, championed strategy, and invested in people.

A trillion-dollar opportunity has opened up for businesses to create value from the personal information that underpins large sets of consumer data. With the right moves, business leaders can learn to mine this valuable asset class for breakthrough efficiencies, returns, and business models.

The energy industry is experiencing a strain on resources as well as broad structural changes. A shifting landscape of demand along with increasing complexity, fragility, volatility, and prices mean that producers and consumers alike are facing profound challenges. It is clear that new strategies are required.

China and India are in the midst of a revolution in growth—not unlike the U.S. economy in its early days—and volatility is part of the bargain. But both countries are on track to have by 2020 1 billion middle-class consumers, whose annual spending will reach $10 trillion.

Decades after its conception in 1976, BCG founder Bruce Henderson’s rule still holds valuable lessons regarding industry structure and leadership for companies in a wide range of industries—and in a business environment that is, in many respects, profoundly different.