Accelerating digital growth through experience, McKinsey's bias

[ad_1]

At 90 avenue des Champs-Elysées, McKinsey dedicated 500 m2 to its latest Experience Studio. This 6th of its kind, with New York, Toronto, Mexico, Sao Paolo, Sidney and Berlin, was officially opened in June 2019. The global network, born in 1926 and which now has more than a hundred offices worldwide, imagined in four months a space dedicated to the experimentation of technological innovation by its customers. "We were inspired by what the other offices of the firm did, while giving more emphasis to the notions of experience and immersion, explains Matteo Pacca, Senior Partner. Unlike ours, the New York studio for example is located in a separate building". Objective of this place: to accelerate the digital growth of companies by sharing the capacities and experiences carried out with customers.

No solutions "ready to use"

98 inch LED screen, computers "superpower", interactive wall but also a theater and virtual reality headsets to promote immersive experiences … The technology is present but discreet at the disposal of users:"There are no ready-made solutions, no predefined uses, but a very wide range of technologies available", adds this software expert, at McKinsey for 15 years.

Concretely, the space is dedicated to holding events, such as workshops on data, intended for the banking sector. A permanent team of 3 to 5 consultants is dedicated to the content. "It is a space open to all when there are no co-creation workshops with our customers, continues McKinsey. For example, we organize recruitment interviews"Plenary room, modular spaces, cabin dedicated to confidential exchanges, meeting rooms … Far from being a demonstration space, the place makes innovation discreet to enhance it.

This open space also aims to embody the digital transformation of businesses, which McKinsey supports after having transformed himself. Today, more than 5,000 people are mobilized on digital and between 15 to 20% of the workforce are technical experts. "We can no longer speak of transformation without digital, without technology"continues Matteo Pacca. Advantage of this paradigm shift,"a reappropriation of technologies", according to the expert, who specifies that"more than 50%"of the firm's activity relates to this field. A know-how that McKinsey has integrated in recent years through acquisitions: QuantumBlack and Lunar in 2015, Veryday in 2016 and more recently Element AI.

Solve a given problem

Three main areas have been identified as lines of inquiry: first, the technological transformation of working methods. "We set up agile working methods, in short cycle, with the necessary technological architectures. Without solid base, difficult to transform". Software architects complete the teams to broaden the field of expertise of the consultants. The second part concerns the design and construction of new models."Our role is to determine how we design products and services that best meet our needs", sums up Matteo Pacca. In the products designed, e-commerce sites and mobility service portals passing through technical architectures.

Finally, data and analytics, with proprietary technologies designed by QuantumBlack teams. Data management and visualization, and above all, concrete examples. "For example, we designed a very specific solution in the French office that analyzes the factors influencing property prices according to a given period, continues Matteo Pacca. There are obvious factors, but others that only the data makes it possible to highlight". With key predictive data."Our goal is not to integrate this tool into our offer. In this way we show our customers the latent economic potentials that we are able to identify through the exploitation of large deposits of data. However, we must keep in mind that our customers are developing and advancing rapidly in digital in parallel". The studio therefore remains focused on its priority: how to solve a given problem in a short time?

A model that can be duplicated on all continents

For the moment, the French McKinsey teams are showing their satisfaction. "The result goes beyond our expectations, with an 80% occupancy rate in the first three months and 2,400 people combined", says the consultancy. With trends that are well identified on the client side: the proliferation of technological bricks, which complicate the role of integrators; the rise of data, and the resulting value extraction with the need to implement real-time analysis; and finally the design, "which must not be restricted to a separate activity, but which must participate in a transformation of the existing", recommends the expert.

"Our experience and our scope allow us to anticipate certain subjects"Matteo Pacca also explains. The international dimension of the company also allows it to take a global look at business innovation."There is agility, faster scaling to United States. There is also less fear of failure". Will the Paris studio allow this culture to be disseminated to the organizations that go there?

In any case, the place is not frozen. It could evolve according to the success encountered and why not, serve as models for future sites, implanted on other continents, like Africa. "Nothing is excluded"In Asia, more precisely in Tokyo and Taipei, workshops dedicated to smart health connected objects allow interactive testing of technologies. In Venice, Lyon and London, model factories serve as places of experimentation. The firm is also considering structure its relationships with start-ups Finally, in the United States, the Mall Of America shopping center in Minneapolis has been hosting a white label Review store since September to Review technologies in situ, called Modern Retail Collective.

Aude Chardenon

 @ChardenonA 

[ad_2]