THIS MONTH'S PAGE-TURNERS ON BUSINESS AND BEYOND

Change can be scary, but not when it’s the kind that reinvigorates the American economy. The authors of McKinsey’s forthcoming book, The Titanium Economy, say the industrial sector is on the brink of its best years yet, but it won’t look anything like the old image of American manufacturing. In this edition of Readers & Leaders, learn more from senior partner and coauthor Asutosh Padhi about the new age of industrial technology, catch up on our conversations with AOL founder Steve Case and former Medtronic CEO Bill George, and see this month’s best-selling business books, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by NPD BookScan. Itching for more good reads? Visit McKinsey on Books for the latest, and to get Readers & Leaders in your inbox monthly, click here to subscribe.

AUTHOR TALKS

The titanium age of US manufacturing is dawning, says North America managing partner Asutosh Padhi. Along with coauthors Gaurav Batra and Nick Santhanam, Padhi examined more than 80 industrial technology companies and identified the 35 leading the American economy into a new era of sustainable, inclusive growth. In a recent edition of Author Talks, the authors reveal how this underrecognized sector—which is responsible for B2B products like recycled lumber and color enamels—is driving long-term gains in innovation and employment.

“Because [titanium economy companies] tend to be smaller from the standpoint of revenues, they don’t make headlines in the news media. Titanium economy companies have been going about doing what they’re actually good at, which is delivering great returns for their shareholders, taking care of customers, taking care of employees, doing the job around communities, and cleaning the environment—but they have never really found an opportunity to pull it all together and tell the story.” Preorder The Titanium Economy: How Industrial Technology Can Create a Better, Faster, Stronger America and watch the full interview here.

IT BEARS REPEATING

“Crises are teaching leaders today that you can’t just rely on what you learned in business school, that everything is going to be long-range planning and process controls. Those things are important, but you have to be able to adapt very rapidly to changing conditions as a leader today. I tell young leaders, ‘Go put yourself in a situation where you learn how to lead in crisis. Don’t just lead in stable times, because you’ll never know what to do when the big crisis comes along.’”

—Bill George, Harvard Business School senior fellow, former Medtronic CEO, and author of True North: Leading Authentically in Today’s Workplace, Emerging Leader Edition, in a recent edition of Author Talks.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Lynn Perry Wooten shares a road map for emerging stronger from the next crisis: “Many times we gravitate to the notion of excellence or exceptional performance, but, in a crisis situation, we also have to understand how we can learn from failure. It’s that after-action review: What can we do better?” Watch the full interview.

Linda Flanagan explains why parents should skip some of their kids’ sports games: “Kids’ sports are meant to be for kids. If they can’t play when you’re not there, there’s something unhealthy going on, and I think most parents can probably recognize that.” Watch the full interview.

Steve Case identifies the noncoastal American cities reshaping the innovation economy: “Every year CNBC comes out with what they call ‘the Disruptor 50’ list. … For the first time, about two-thirds—33 out of 50 of the companies on the Disruptor 50 list—were from outside Silicon Valley.” Watch the full interview.

Dipo Faloyin celebrates Africa’s diversity of culture and corrects stereotypes about the region: “This is a region of 1.4 billion people and over 2,000 languages. African countries can represent everything and anything, from stories of great triumph and success to stories of great pain, just like anywhere else in the world.” Watch the full interview.

Jessica Nordell explains how to help eliminate implicit bias from the workplace: “What people might be surprised to know is that the subtle, ambiguous, everyday bias that’s pervasive in organizations and workplaces—not to mention in education, healthcare, and public safety—is actually more detrimental to our performance than explicit bias.” Watch the full interview.

BUSINESS BESTSELLERS TOP

BOO! An empty bookshelf is terrifying. Dust off the cobwebs and stock up on the top business bestsellers in eight categories, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by NPD BookScan. Explore the full lists on McKinsey on Books. 

BUSINESS OVERALL

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Avery Publishing Group)

BUSINESS HARDCOVER

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Avery Publishing Group)

DECISION MAKING

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (Hachette Book Group)

ECONOMICS

The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale by John A. List (Random House)

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Avery Publishing Group)

WORKPLACE CULTURE

Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger, and Multiply Your Impact by Liz Wiseman (HarperCollins Publisher)

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Caste (Oprah’s Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House)

SUSTAINABILITY

Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose by Stefan Dercon (Oxford University Press)

BOOKMARK THIS

If you’d like to propose a book or author for #McKAuthorTalks, please email us at Author_Talks@Mckinsey.com. Due to the high volume of requests, we will respond only to those being considered.

—Edited by Molly Liebergall, a digital editor in McKinsey’s New York office

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